


Vol 1: A blend of both?

by MARKSE



Series: Semi Original Works [1]
Category: Sea Fret Fan Club
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-22 11:42:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 32
Words: 31,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11966646
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MARKSE/pseuds/MARKSE
Summary: Doctor Cindy Bexley is at the top of her field. Her husband has left her, but life's otherwise okay. Not great, just okay. Her cat Molly and occasional visits from her daughter help keep her grounded.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a re-post of the story as my original one had linked to Tallulah's book and the HighTide festival breaking the AO3 terms. Sorry! Lesson learnt. If interested do a Google, Bing, etc.
> 
> My story started off as a 100% original piece triggered by a technology post on Instagram from wevolverapp. Quite some way in I realised I needed to introduce another character. Someone with a strong contrast to Dr Cindy Bexley. A major change to volume 1 began..
> 
> Step in Ruby. Ruby's a character in the play Sea Fret by playwright and singer Tallulah Brown staring Lucy Carless from C4/AMC's HUMANS. I was lucky enough to catch her play at the Old Red Lion Theatre in London. This story hopefully stands well enough on it's own, but if you fancy reading the play first to understand Ruby's character please do! She's a bit of a wild one with questionable morals.
> 
> If you see this in time you can also catch it performed at the 2017 HighTide Festival Wednesday 13th September 2017.
> 
> At various points of the series, currently two volumes, there will be graphic descriptions of operations, sex or violence. And a lot of references to sushi. If this isn't your cup of tea please find something else to read. If it is.. read on, I hope you enjoy it!

It was a darkened room, that much she could tell. Her senses were off, things kept fading in and out. Thinking was hard. Not that she needed to think very hard about the darkness; no discernible light filtered through her eyelids. It was an easy conclusion to come to. She tried to open her eyes again, and couldn't. The muscles were working, she could feel her lashes pulling against each other. They felt glued shut. A moment later she slipped under.

Waking take two was accompanied by a mild headache. Her throat felt terrible - whatever had been jammed down it had probably been assisting with her breathing. Now it wanted to work against her. She was no stranger to the operating table, thanks to appendicitis in her twenties, and a problematic delivery in her mid thirties. This felt different. A very wrong sort of different. 

A hand was moved. Not by much, it was bound by the wrist. Her legs and feet too. She tried to move her head and shoulders, they too were strapped to the bed. As mild panic set in, a machine beeped more frequently. Then she felt a cold sensation in the back of her hand and a few seconds later, drifted out of consciousness.

Waking for the third time, she felt a bit more with it, but didn't risk moving. Where the hell was she? Sure, people wanted the research of Doctor Cindy Bexley, the first scientist to accurately map the processes of the brain in fine detail, but kidnapping? Being left like this? What the actual fuck, as her teenage daughter would say. 

Her daughter. A smart young woman. Sam was at university in Nottingham, miles away from London. Her father, Cindy's ex-husband, was back in Spain.

She thought back to the last thing she could remember. Stepping into the lecture hall, putting her computer block on the lectern, and plugging in the high speed network fibre. Then there'd been the sound of an explosion in the distance; building alarms had gone off, and a second later there were two more explosions outside, followed by one in the lecture hall itself. The table at the foot of the students' seating had been torn apart, bits of the equipment she was about to demonstrate flying in all directions. The largest fragment had come straight at her. It all happened in less than a blink of an eye.

She should be dead.

Apart from her daughter, her students, assuming some survived, the only one who'd miss 'Doc Bex' was Molly, her soppy black-and-white cat. Shit! How long had she been here? Who would be feeding Molly. Anyone? Calm down, Cin. Remembering that level of detail should be impossible. The heart monitor had started beeping faster, and again she felt the cold in her hand.

The next waking was different. She dreamt first. A dream of running a hot bath and opening a medicine cupboard, unplugging the lace interface.

There were three groups protesting against the work she did. Elon Musk's Neural Lace had jump-started a new industry - its technology created a 'direct cortical interface' between brain and computer. Facebook had seen the potential and jumped on the bandwagon, soon to be followed by Google, IBM and HP. Rather than competing against each other, an alliance had been created, early standards made. Facebook and Google wanted anonymised data to help target advertising by geographical area. IBM and HP made computer blocks, much like the one she'd plugged in at the lectern. Nobody was quite sure what Musk wanted out of it, but there were a good number of theories. There were many thousands of people on what was officially still a trial, all earning a small income from having Lace.

Footsteps could be heard outside the room, then voices. Unfamiliar voices. A man spoke in what sounded like Japanese. She knew the sounds well enough to know it was, but not what was being said. The owner of the voice stepped into the room with someone else, there were two different sounds from the footsteps. They started a sentence with Cooper-San. Cooper? The bastard was involved, probably the one responsible! Shit! Was he that jealous? Or had he been bribed by one of the corporations or protest groups?

"How is she?"

A woman's voice answers. "Stable now, Doctor Arakawa. We've had to sedate her a few times, BP and heart rate spiking. We'll have to start over. The interface recorded her dreaming of the suicide attempt."

What the fuck! How many patients were in here! Arakawa! What a fucking traitor! He must have a cold, he was sounding different.

Fragments of the dream came rushing back... taking a packet of razor blades out of a medicine cupboard. Running a bath was fine, she loved a good soak with a book and glass of white. But she didn't have a bath, only a large walk-in shower. Blades? She didn't own blades, she waxed or used disposables. There was another detail wrong with the dream. Skin tone. The hands, arms and legs in the dream were a lovely shade of brown, the sort an African-European would have. Her own skin was a pasty white. She could never tan properly - she went from white to blotchy to lobster red and back again without getting a tan that would stay. The biology department had used her as a test subject, mapped her DNA and told her.. what had they told her? She could picture Doctor Paul Farmers talking to her, it was like TV with the sound down. His face moved, the words were lost. She hears the beeping accelerate and hears her pulse quickening in her ears as the blood rushes around her head.

"Sir! Her heart rate's jumping. She's awake!"

"Ten CC now!"

Cindy tries to move, feels a cold sensation in a hand as they inject drugs to put her under.

[Chapter-2](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-2-1)


	2. Chapter 2

It was a darkened room, that much she could tell. Her senses were off, things kept fading in and out. Thinking was hard. Not that she needed to think very hard about the darkness; no discernible light filtered through her eyelids. It was an easy conclusion to come to. She tried to open her eyes again, and couldn't. The muscles were working, she could feel her lashes pulling against each other. They felt glued shut. A moment later she slipped under.

Waking take two was accompanied by a mild headache. Her throat felt terrible - whatever had been jammed down it had probably been assisting with her breathing. Now it wanted to work against her. She was no stranger to the operating table, thanks to appendicitis in her twenties, and a problematic delivery in her mid thirties. This felt different. A very wrong sort of different. 

A hand was moved. Not by much, it was bound by the wrist. Her legs and feet too. She tried to move her head and shoulders, they too were strapped to the bed. As mild panic set in, a machine beeped more frequently. Then she felt a cold sensation in the back of her hand and a few seconds later, drifted out of consciousness.

Waking for the third time, she felt a bit more with it, but didn't risk moving. Where the hell was she? Sure, people wanted the research of Doctor Cindy Bexley, the first scientist to accurately map the processes of the brain in fine detail, but kidnapping? Being left like this? What the actual fuck, as her teenage daughter would say. 

Her daughter. A smart young woman. Sam was at university in Nottingham, miles away from London. Her father, Cindy's ex-husband, was back in Spain.

She thought back to the last thing she could remember. Stepping into the lecture hall, putting her computer block on the lectern, and plugging in the high speed network fibre. Then there'd been the sound of an explosion in the distance; building alarms had gone off, and a second later there were two more explosions outside, followed by one in the lecture hall itself. The table at the foot of the students' seating had been torn apart, bits of the equipment she was about to demonstrate flying in all directions. The largest fragment had come straight at her. It all happened in less than a blink of an eye.

She should be dead.

Apart from her daughter, her students, assuming some survived, the only one who'd miss 'Doc Bex' was Molly, her soppy black-and-white cat. Shit! How long had she been here? Who would be feeding Molly. Anyone? Calm down, Cin. Remembering that level of detail should be impossible. The heart monitor had started beeping faster, and again she felt the cold in her hand.

The next waking was different. She dreamt first. A dream of running a hot bath and opening a medicine cupboard, unplugging the lace interface.

There were three groups protesting against the work she did. Elon Musk's Neural Lace had jump-started a new industry - its technology created a 'direct cortical interface' between brain and computer. Facebook had seen the potential and jumped on the bandwagon, soon to be followed by Google, IBM and HP. Rather than competing against each other, an alliance had been created, early standards made. Facebook and Google wanted anonymised data to help target advertising by geographical area. IBM and HP made computer blocks, much like the one she'd plugged in at the lectern. Nobody was quite sure what Musk wanted out of it, but there were a good number of theories. There were many thousands of people on what was officially still a trial, all earning a small income from having Lace.

Footsteps could be heard outside the room, then voices. Unfamiliar voices. A man spoke in what sounded like Japanese. She knew the sounds well enough to know it was, but not what was being said. The owner of the voice stepped into the room with someone else, there were two different sounds from the footsteps. They started a sentence with Cooper-San. Cooper? The bastard was involved, probably the one responsible! Shit! Was he that jealous? Or had he been bribed by one of the corporations or protest groups?

"How is she?"

A woman's voice answers. "Stable now, Doctor Arakawa. We've had to sedate her a few times, BP and heart rate spiking. We'll have to start over. The interface recorded her dreaming of the suicide attempt."

What the fuck! How many patients were in here! Arakawa! What a fucking traitor! He must have a cold, he was sounding different.

Fragments of the dream came rushing back... taking a packet of razor blades out of a medicine cupboard. Running a bath was fine, she loved a good soak with a book and glass of white. But she didn't have a bath, only a large walk-in shower. Blades? She didn't own blades, she waxed or used disposables. There was another detail wrong with the dream. Skin tone. The hands, arms and legs in the dream were a lovely shade of brown, the sort an African-European would have. Her own skin was a pasty white. She could never tan properly - she went from white to blotchy to lobster red and back again without getting a tan that would stay. The biology department had used her as a test subject, mapped her DNA and told her.. what had they told her? She could picture Doctor Paul Farmers talking to her, it was like TV with the sound down. His face moved, the words were lost. She hears the beeping accelerate and hears her pulse quickening in her ears as the blood rushes around her head.

"Sir! Her heart rate's jumping. She's awake!"

"Ten CC now!"

Cindy tries to move, feels a cold sensation in a hand as they inject drugs to put her under.

[Chapter-2](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-2-1)


	3. Chapter 3

The evening had passed slowly, the machine doing a steady beep, beep, beep. How the nurse had been able to see properly was a mystery yet to be solved. Her eyes felt okay, as much as she could tell without touching them with a hand. If the object that had flown towards her face had damaged her eyes then eyelids would have gone too. She could feel they were there even glued shut.

She lay there quietly listening to the nurse on night duty. Sleep had given her a visit half a dozen times since the other nurse had left, she dreamt of parties on a beach and giving young men hand jobs in.. in something. A structure at the top of the beach. No idea what that was, but it felt key somehow. Claire Sylvia had received a heart and lung transplant and got some of the more detailed post-op study. Maybe she was experiencing what Claire had gone through, getting memories from the person who'd donates them?

Being strapped to the bed might have been to help stop her moving and pulling stitches. Wounds also hurt more when you moved. Keep perfectly still and the brain got the same signal, dismissed it as known until the signal changed.

The sound of footsteps could be heard in the corridor. The door opened. The sound of three different shoes came into the room. Keys were tapped.

"What's her lace stats saying?"

"Good morning doctor Arakawa. She's awake."

"Doctor Bexley, good morning! If you can hear me please look left then right."

Sod it. She does as asked.

"Wonderful! Nurse, get Professor Cooper please!"

Cooper? WTF? Cindy hears feet running to the door.

"He'd been working through all your published papers and recent notes, was quite excited at something he'd discovered. When you're up and walking he wonders if you could publish a joint paper?"

Of course he would. He'd been holding onto her coat tails and getting a free ride for the last three years. Any chance to get his name on a paper.. he might have been gorgeous but.. trusted him she did not. She'd have smiled had the thing in her mouth and throat not been in the way. Sam loved Yoda, would speak like him at times just to wind her up.

"Doctor Bexley, I'm going to take the glue off your eyes, you _must_ keep them closed for the moment, is that understood? Left then right if you agree."

Cindy does the left, right, center.

"Good. I'll also remove the air and food tubes, please don't attempt to talk or make any sounds. Understood?"

Flick flick.

"Good. While I do that Sue will work the other end, remove the drain tubes. It will probably feel a little uncomfortable for a few seconds, sorry. I'm just moving the blackout back, you've not seen daylight for a long time, only infrared for our camera. Your eyes will take a while to adjust, I can't stress enough you need to keep them closed for the moment."

Cindy gets daylight streaming through her eyelids. Thank God! If the flying object had hit her, which it must have done, the eyes had survived! Warm water ran over her eyes and down the side of her face.

"The glue is water soluble, please keep them closed as asked. It will take a while to soften, please be patient. I'll get your air tube out now. Please resist the temptation to gasp for air or talk."

The sensation of the tubes coming out was horrid. She held her breath and waited for the desire to cough to pass. She licked her lips, they felt dry and cracked. Restraints were removed, her legs were lifted and parted, tubes were pulled. If the breathing and food tubes were bad this was worse! It felt like a large turd was being pulled from her arsehole. Then it was over. She chuckled to herself. She'd never use that sort of language. Maybe thirty years ago. Next she felt her legs being lowered, a gown being pulled back down and a blanket being placed over her lower half. Arm restraints were removed. The door opens.

"Cindy! Thank God!"

It was Cooper.

Cindy feels something being gently wiped against her eyes and warm water being applied again.

"How long before she can stand up?"

"Professor Cooper, she's been out of action for a long while, a few more minutes wont kill you."

"True. I'm just excited."

"We can tell."

"How much physiotherapy do you think she'll need?"

"Some, how much is yet to be seen. And counselling. It may be many months before she returns to work, if at all."

"She has to! We need her! The alliance needs her!"

"That may be, but as _my patient_ she goes back to work when _I_ say she's ready, no sooner."

Cindy felt her temperature rise rapidly, the beeping rate did the same. Anger about the way her ex used to treat her like property bubbled up inside. _My_. She goes to open her mouth to speak and gets a hand clamped over it.

"Sorry doctor, not yet!"

She relaxed for a moment and felt the hand being lifted. "Fuck you! I'm nobody's property!" That wasn't her voice. And saying something like that wasn't her. What the hell was going on?

"I asked you not to speak and you showed you understood!"

Cindy started to open her eyes.

"For pity's sake not yet!" hands were quickly on her shoulders. "Sedative please nurse!"

"Like hell! Get off me!" She reaches for her left hand and feels the needle taped to the back, starts peeling at the large plaster.

"Oh no you don't!"

"Fuck off!"

Her hands are grabbed and pulled back to the edge of the bed. The sound of velcro being undone gets her mad. In a fast move she kicks off the blanket, brings her legs up and over her head, does the splits and kicks out blindly. One catches the doctor to her left, the other misses. The doctor falls hard.

"Cindy! Calm down!"

"Fuck off Cooper! Undo my arms!"

"No. Calm down!"

"Who the fuck do you think you are? Get me off this bed NOW! YOU FUCKING CUNT!"

"You try and help someone and.."

"Help? How the fuck is this helping Cooper!"

She can hear the doctor getting to his feet, some movement from the others. Footsteps towards the door, it opening and closing.

"COOPER!"

There was no reply. She pulls at the bindings with all her might.

"COOPER YOU SHIT! GET IN HERE!"

[Chapter-4](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-4-1)


	4. Chapter 4

She must have been left alone for a good half hour crying. Crying and pulling at the bindings with the little strength she had left. Still they didn't budge. Then two words came back to her. Water soluble. Opening her eyes was given another go. After a few attempts the right one obliged. With the now very soft glue still on her lashes it opened and spread over her eye giving her a very blurred view of the ceiling. Her eyes needed wiping. If she couldn't bring her hands to her face maybe she could get something else to her face instead?

She felt around with her feet. Damn. She'd kicked the blanket clean off the bed. Now what? In hunting for the blanket with her feet she'd wriggled down the bed a little. Her arms were slightly bent at the elbows. Nice! She wriggled further down and turned onto her side. Then a new piece of information asked for her attention. Breasts. She had breasts. Doctor Cindy Bexley had breasts. This wasn't right. She had a terrible time as a teenager being teased about her super flat chest. Kids were cruel. She'd still get a bit depressed about it these days, the many beautiful dresses she couldn't wear. And now she had a breast laying quite warmly on her right arm. She wriggled. It wasn't small. It also wasn't firm like a breast with a silicon implant. The penny dropped loud and hard. This wasn't her chest. Not the one she was born with. She wriggles more and gets to the side of the bed, starts working at the restraint with her teeth.

The door opens. "I think it's time we talked."

"Too fucking right it is Cooper! You all cut me open for a full lung and heart transplant and decide to give me another woman's chest? I'm grateful but also fucking angry!"

"Um.."

"WHAT? DON'T _UM_ ME YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" Cindy turns as much as her arms will allow, wipes her face repeatedly on the bed sheet.

"This is going to come as a shock.."

"I've had a few already, hit me with it."

"We've not done any organ transplants. The only thing we did was to fit lace."

"I already had it!"

"You did. Ruby didn't."

If only a penny had dropped earlier a two pound coin now goes crashing through her mind. "HOLY SHIT!" She spins around, wriggles and sits up, looks down at her body. "You're fucking kidding me!"

Cooper smiled. "Not at all. Your block was sending everything. I mean _everything_. All your dreams, daydreaming, reminiscing, the works. All the raw data was being stored for the re-filter experiments you wanted to do. I joined the dots between your published data and latest research notes. The Push."

"Would you mind?" She pulls on the bindings.

"Sure."

Cooper pulls the wide velcro strap closest to him, the nurse does the other. Cindy clutches her chest. "Oh my lord! Get me a mirror!"

The nurse steps out of the room. Cindy looks around, she was the only patient in here. "Tell me about Ruby."

"It's probably best you know as little as possible."

"I dreamt of giving young men hand jobs at the beach, parties on the sand! That wasn't Cindy Bexley! That was Ruby!"

Arakawa frowns, "You can't possibly remember any of her experiences, we gave her brain such a high dose no memories could remain."

"Her brain? You did read my research notes on cellular systemic memory?"

"I tried. I couldn't understand much of it."

"Add it to your priority re-reading list."

"Give it to me in simpler terms."

" _Organ memory_."

"Ah."

The nurse wheels a tall mirror in sideways, takes it to Cooper. "All yours."

Cooper smiles, "How's your stress levels?"

"You'd know if my thrashing about hadn't pulled the sensors off. Off the charts and falling I think."

He glances at the doctor, quickly spins the mirror around.

The image looking back at her makes her burst into tears.

Cooper's shoulders dropped. "Crap."

Cindy sobbed long and hard. Nobody dared talk until it calmed down.

Cooper looked heartbroken, "Sorry Cindy."

"She's beautiful! You couldn't have brought her back?"

The nurse shakes her head, "The receiving hospital tried four times. She had an organ donor card, her father signed papers too."

Cindy wipes tears away and checks out the reflection as she moves, "Why did you keep her in a coma, why not harvest organs and put them to use?"

"She's been invaluable for research, making regular donations.."

"Of what?"

"Blood. Her blood type, it was, is, extremely unusual. Rh null."

"Null? You're saying she's missing all of the Rhesus antigens?"

"Yes. Somehow she's managed to stay reasonably fit and well. She should have all sorts of problems. She doesn't. We didn't want to cut her open with so many research centres around the world wanting samples."

"How many?"

"Lots. Thousands. You'd normally have to wait sixteen weeks between donations. We carefully managed iron intake, fluids and minerals, cut that down to twelve. Each donation split into many small vials and shipped worldwide."

"Nowhere near enough for a medical procedure, only enough for research?"

"Exactly. Getting blood across boarders for operations is a nightmare. Small samples for research is much easier."

"I see."

The doctor gets to her side. "So when John came to me saying he'd made a breakthrough with your research, needed a body.."

"You gave me hers."

"Not quite. Ruby was our second choice."

"Huh?"

"You had memory issues with the first, far darker than giving boys hand jobs."

"What happened?"

"Best we keep that to ourselves. All I'll say is that the process was tried five times, each time you got steadily worse."

"Worse how?"

"Recalling more of her memories rather than your own. When I get home I will be rereading your research. Guaranteed. I might need some help understanding it."

"Thanks. Feel free to call."

"You're a world first Doctor Bexley. The first person to be brought back in another person's body. Doctor Frankenstein would be proud, the only scars are for the lace."

Cindy reached a hand up and felt the dressing. "That small?"

"A new fitting technique. It goes in carefully folded and is expanded sideways extremely slowly and gently with a lot of lubrication."

"Nice. Who's idea was that?"

The two men look at each other.

"You don't remember?"

"No?"

"You should do, it's yours."

"Nope. No recollection of that."

The doctor looks at the nurse. "The cutting room floor. Can I see the fragments?"

"Yes doctor."

Cindy frowns, "Cutting room floor?"

"Our nickname for the wastebasket. We cut things associated with dreams."

"But a lot of my work came from dreams. I'll need them back. _All of them_."

"Oh. We'll need to put you under again."

"No way! We'll do it under local. And I'll drive thank you."

Cooper shakes his head, "I really don't think that's wise."

"Why?"

"You'll form memories of putting the memories back, it may impact how well they take."

"Are we not research scientists?"

"Yes.."

"So we try it my way. If they don't take you get to do take two."

"I really don't think.."

"Cooper! Your problem is that you think _too much_! You over think things, convince yourself they won't work so never try. It's a miracle you didn't overthink Push."

"Oh. Am I really like that?"

"Yes!"

"I wish someone had said that years ago."

"Well I'm saying it now. Can someone get me some clothes?"

The nurse nods, "Yes. We'll have to go shopping. What would you like?"

"A dress would be nice, shoes too. I have no idea what size I am."

[Chapter-5](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-5-1)


	5. Chapter 5

Cindy sat in the front row with the students, ran a hand over the latest outfit. She'd become a bit of an online shopaholic. Cooper now ran all the lectures. The old Cindy was no more, the body clock had been turned back almost three decades. "Lace up the bootstrap."

The badly scarred student to her right frowns and turns, "You sounded like Cindy. That was one of her phrases."

"I miss her."

"You joined lectures _after_ she and the others died, how can you miss her?"

"I was getting private tuition, trying to catch up ready to join here. I missed the first year due to health issues."

"Oh."

Cindy winks at John. "Sorry Mr Cooper, carry on."

Cooper turns back to the projection and fights off a grin. "Thank you Chloe."

Only he, the doctor, two nurses and Cindy's daughter knew her true identity. Sam and Cindy did almost everything together when Sam was on holiday and in London, more like sisters now than mother and daughter. Sam had taken the news surprisingly well, said she suspected something left field would happen one day. The lace killing her mother had been her worst fear, her mother getting a second hand body long after the attack was a total surprise. The first meeting the three had talked until four in the morning. Sam had got her to recall all sorts of things from her childhood that only her mother or father would know. Very few facts had been lost in the push. She'd raised her glass and grinned, said "Nice tits at last Mum. The boat race isn't bad either." then necked the last of her whisky before asking for a refill.

John Cooper turned back to the students, "As Chloe was hinting, mind recovery after an near catastrophic trauma needs the bootstrap to be managed very carefully because.."

"Sir?"

"Yes William?"

"Could the process be used to push a mind into an alternate body?"

Cooper froze for a moment. "In theory that's possible, it would be highly unethical."

"But possible."

"In theory yes. You'd need a donor body, wanting to give yours to medical research are you?"

The room, more women than men, bursts out laughing.

William goes bright red, "No sir."

The girl behind Cindy turns to see him, "Thank fuck. We like you just as you are big willy."

William goes even redder. "Thanks."

Cooper shakes his head, "I've heard the gossip, don't want to hear any more."

The girl smiles, "Man minotaur, punisher of.."

"Jess! I said I didn't want to hear anymore!"

"Sorry sir. I'm just glad his body isn't under the control of a psychotic rapist."

"That would be a problem. That's why the technology was being changed, you can only push a mind back into the body it came from. You can only push Chloe back into Chloe, Paul into Paul, Steve into Steve. Unless the prime minister overrules it as a matter of national security and a suitable body is available."

"The PM? He'll have something like launch codes?"

"Not will Will, he does. Today."

"What if they're stolen?"

"Then we'd be in trouble. The government assures me that's not going to happen."

"What if it was the PM himself that needed them?"

"No minister is allowed to have lace. The risk of data leakage is too great for them."

"Oh."

Alarm bells sound, Cindy and others panic a little.

"Half ten alarm test! Sit down everyone!" The bell stops. "Security's so tight we'll not have a repeat of the incident that killed Cindy and students, God rest their souls. All equipment demos are now remote with cameras too. If anything goes bang it won't be in here."

"Unless it's someone's block."

"Yes William, unless it's someone's block. And with sniffer dogs on the faculty staff that's most unlikely."

"So Chloe, Paul, Steve, Simon, Rabindra, any of them could be a terrorist.."

"WILLIAM! Are you listening to me?"

"Sir?"

"You, Chloe, the others with lace, all the other students, you passed how many dogs to get to the lecture?"

"Um.. four? But she could have.."

John Cooper had had enough, "Jesus Christ on a speed bike! Have you got the brain of a bull as well as the wedding tackle?"

William goes red again, "No sir! Sorry sir!"

"Then use your brain logically and stop this fantasy conjecture."

"Sorry sir."

John looks around the class. "Go take a break, all of you, this Monday lecture will have to wait until Wednesday, I'm not in the mood to teach anymore today." no student moves. "GO! GET OUT!" the vein down the middle of his forehead bulges.

Cindy raises a hand, "Sir, I have a few questions."

"They'll have to wait Chloe."

"I need answers for my essay."

"They'll have to wait."

"It won't be in on time then."

John looks at the ceiling and sighs, "Still catching up? See me in my office after lunch. Anyone else need help?"

Nobody dares admit they do.

"Good, go, go get on with your work before I really blow a fuse! GO!"

[Chapter-6](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-6-1)


	6. Chapter 6

Cindy put her things in her locker and headed out for a long walk. She needed thinking time. Cooper had set them an essay task to see that things were understood before they went onto the next module. _To see the foundation module was understood_. The f word had triggered another memory, of being able to look through a knot hole in a floor board and see well lit pebbles many meters below. Another of Ruby's memories no doubt. A lack of good foundations.

It worried Cindy a little that the memories that came were so vivid. Without any conscious thought she turned and headed in another direction. Only when she snapped out of what felt like a daydream did she realise she was inside the sports centre reception looking through Nike ladies swimming costumes. A young Cindy Bexley had learnt to swim at junior school, hadn't done any swimming since, except for the odd few minutes in pools with Sam on holiday. Maybe she should start again?

With an hour and a half to kill she picks an all black one with stripes down the side and heads to the counter to pay.

"Good morning. Are you a member?"

"Um, no, I've not swam in years. Do you have trial passes?"

"We have guest passes. Do you know any members?"

"Um.." Cooper was as fit as.. maybe he used the place? They'd not talked about it. "Is Professor John Cooper a member?"

The lady laughs, "Six-pack John? He most certainly is. One of his students are you?"

"Yeah." And more.

"I'll give you a guest pass this once, you'll need to get him to buy you some for next time or become a full member yourself."

"Thanks!

"One pass, one locker key, towels are just outside the ladies changing room entrance. Enjoy your swim."

"Awesome, thanks!"

Cindy snapped out of another daydream just as she was about to leave the changing room naked. The costume was hurriedly wriggled into and her clothes locked away. Two daydreams in half an hour. She wondered if she could control them, make them like lucid dreams. If she could them maybe she could start to access organ memory. That was a research paper on it's own.

She carefully coils the lead and tucks it and her waterproof block into her costume top and catches herself in a mirror. What a body! It had curves. Nice curves. She wasn't the Peperami monster anymore. That had been the cruelest of insults her ex had made, shortly before she packed him a large suitcase and left it in the hall by the door with a note. He'd not objected or said goodbye, just left. That had been the final insult, no words of regret, no apology, just him picking up the case and going.

In the pool she thinks about Sophia the AI robot that she'd seen in so many YouTube videos. The most realistic looking robot to date had been made by The Chinese, it didn't have Sophia's facial control though. Someone needed to blend the two. She was in a new body thanks to John working out Push. This body was no stranger to swimming! It felt good.

She dives under and swims half a length at the bottom. Blend. She had to admit she was mostly Cindy with strong hints of Ruby. Maybe in the future when the robot technology was even more advanced Push could be used to restore a person into one? Having crew sleep on missions to Mars wouldn't be such a problem. All sorts of exploration could be done with current limitations removed. Maybe that was Musk's secret end goal?

They were still a long way off, the Boston Dynamics lot snapped up by Google had humanoid robots, but no way could they pass as human. And every video of Sophia had her sitting down, never walking. One thing she'd learnt from her father, if you kept hitting a problem from different angles one day it would be cracked.

[Chapter-7](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-7-1)


	7. Chapter 7

In the student canteen at twelve Cindy gets a tray and looks at all the hot food on offer. This wasn't like the University meals she remembered. It still amused her despite being here for a few months as student rather than teacher. Kids these days were spoilt for choice. Meals from so many cultures, it was hard to know which way to turn.

"Chloe.. Chloe? Chloooeeeee."

"Hmm? Sorry Jen, miles away."

"I swear you don't know your own name sometimes. You're weird. People shout for Rabindra and you turn as if they've called you. The same with people calling for Sandra."

"Their nicknames sound like other names I know. Can I tell you a secret?"

"Sure."

"I see ghosts."

Jen has a good chuckle. "More like you need your lace seen to, it's messing with your head. Meat balls please, extra sauce, easy on the spag. Will's a bit pissed off, his _keep it on the down low_ has gone a bit too _let everyone know_."

"The campus bull doesn't like being put out to stud?"

"He's not a breeder."

"Huh?"

Jen whispers in her ear.

"Oh Jesus! Definitely no thanks to that!"

"Same. What are you getting?"

"I can't make my mind up."

"Have the same then, they're good."

"Okay. Hi, same again please."

"Good swim?"

"Huh?"

"Damp hair?"

"Oh, right. Yeah, a good long swim and think."

They wander over to the tables and find a small one for two.

Jen cracks the top off her water and downs half the bottle before breathing again. "Ahh, I needed that. What are you doing Friday night?"

"Friday? Nothing. Saturday seeing my dau.. friend Sam. Why?"

"Dau? What were you going to say?"

"Dauntless. Invulnerable to fear or intimidation."

"Sounds like someone I should invite as well."

"Invite where?"

"Kev's mates are putting on a rave in an old warehouse in Hackney, 11PM."

Cindy zoned out for a few seconds as the word rave triggered memories that weren't hers. Ruby's. She could picture Ruby dancing with another girl as if in one of those first person video games where you can only see your hands. She could see a face, had no idea of the girl's name.

"Chloe? Still with me?"

"Huh?"

"Your face looked like you were off with the fairies having a party. Good memories?"

Cindy grabbed her fork and stabbed a meat ball. "Yeah, not bad. I'll think about it, see what Sam's doing."

"Please come, I'll text the address."

"I can't promise."

Jan slides over her phone, the Contacts app already open and Chloe typed into the first name field. "Try."

Cindy looks at the phone, realises she can't remember her new number. She gets her own phone out and creates a contact entry for Jan. "You first."

"Okay." Jan takes it, taps and returns.

Cindy types a smilie into a message and taps send. "Add that to my contact entry." She wraps a load of spaghetti around her fork and stabs another meat ball.

"Last name?"

"No last name, just Chloe. I'll be famous one day, like Kim, Kylie, Cheryl, Cher." she flicks her long damp hair to one side and pouts, has a chuckle. "Wishful thinking."

"Chloe X then."

"I like that! Chloe X." She unzips her pen bag and gets a red felt tip out, opens her A4 pad and practices a signature. "Nice! Thanks Jen!"

"Never written your name before?"

"Sure I have, in a boring font with no character. Chloe X sounds a bit racy."

"Are you?"

"Boring or racy?"

"Yeah."

She grins, tongue licking the corner of her mouth. "Depends."

"On what?"

"On where I am and what's going on."

"What do you do in the evenings?"

"Reading. Lots and lots of reading."

"Boring!"

"Maybe. But I'm going to pass with the highest mark the university has ever seen."

Jan had put a mouthful of lunch in her mouth, chews fast and washes it down. "Whoa, that's a big challenge."

"Doctor Bexley gave up a _lot_ of her time to get me ready to join the course, I'm doing it in her memory."

"What was she like, outside of uni?"

"Okay I guess. That's how I met Sam Bexley."

"Dauntless."

"Yeah, that's her." She made a mental note to talk to Sam about the label. Her block vibrated once to say it had logged it and set a reminder that would be pushed that evening.

"Did your block just do something?"

"Yup. Reminded me to drink. I'm on a two and a half litre challenge."

"Why?"

"It helps me with my weight." She takes a long sip.

"It helps?"

"It does. Do you think they'd let me have this to go? I'll have it for dinner."

"Sure. Where are you staying? I've not seen you in the evenings."

"Sam lets me stay at her mums."

"Are you gay?"

"No!"

"Just checking. They say Cindy was."

" _What_! Who? She'd been married, had Sam."

"People."

Cindy felt angry, fought down the urge to snap. "She never once did anything around me to make me suspect that. Quite the opposite." She eats a bit more and goes back to the lady that had served them, asks for a takeaway box. Gay. What a nerve! She'd never once done anything to suggest that. She'd kicked her controlling husband out, that didn't mean she'd swung the other way. In Ruby's body she was even further from gay than before.

The rest of her meal forked into the box she closes the lid. "Friday 11PM?"

"Friday 11. Definitely not gay?"

"No. Why?"

"Would you have a problem if I was?"

"No."

"Good. Because I am. Happily hitched by the way, I'm not after anyone."

"Good for you. Anyone I know?"

"Yeah. You'll find out who if you come along Friday."

"I'll talk to Sam. Right, I'm off to see if Cooper will answer my questions."

"Good luck. Hopefully he's calmed down."

"Yeah, did you see the vein on his forehead?"

"Yup. Scary stuff."

[Chapter-8](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-8-1)


	8. Chapter 8

Cindy knocks on the door.

"Come in."

She enters John's office, closes the door and slowly turns the key in the lock. Her books and food are placed on his filing cabinet, carefully turned so they don't slide off. She returns to the door and puts a length of bent coat hanger through the key and turns it up over the handle.

"What can I help you with John?"

"Hello Chloe. I was looking through Cindy's old notes, trying to decode her thoughts on the next steps for the block."

"Why are you talking about me in the third person?"

"If I don't I might trip myself up outside of this room and give the game away. You paid a lot of money for your new identity, all highly illegal."

"Highly illegal and unethical Chloe X. My new nickname thanks to Jen."

"Chloe X. It suits the new you."

"Why thank you dear. To think I was calling you a cunt in the recovery room."

"A shit too."

"Sorry. Next steps. Want to see it in action?"

"You've done it already?"

"I don't spend my nights fingering myself. Much as her memories suggest I should. By the way, where's my original block now?"

"Under lock and key."

"On campus?"

"Yes."

"Good. The next step is to use the block as a compute module."

"It always has been."

"For storage, not for augmenting the mind. Can you remember Pi to a million decimal places?"

"Of course not."

"3.1415926535897932384626433832795.."

"Okay! That's enough. Wow. What else can you do?"

"To: John Cooper. Subject: Research. Body text: Hi John, please find attached my latest notes. End body text. Attach file notes.txt. Send."

Three seconds later his phone and PC chime.

"Bloody hell!"

"Having WiFi and fibre Ethernet on the new block is, as Sam would call it, the nuts. I can use it as additional storage too."

"Isn't it a bit dangerous? If you became dependent on it and the block failed.."

"Then I recover to a replacement from my secure cloud."

"Encrypted?"

"Heavily. In the block too. I can control my Hive heating at home through it too."

"You're still okay with me publishing this with your old name and Chloe Spencer?"

"Yup."

"Great.. I've decided what I'm doing instead of a birthday party this year."

"Oh yes?"

"Getting my lace fitted. If you can email me with a thought think of all the other things we could do."

"Like whispering sweet nothings in lectures?"

John laughs, "That could get me in trouble. Physically I'm twenty something years your senior. Mentally your junior."

"You are." She walks behind his desk and pushes his chair back. He grabs a tissue as she unbuckles his belt and undoes his trousers.

He grins, "Hello Ruby."

She grins back, "Stop calling me that. I've not got a multiple personality disorder, just a few memories of a body's past life." She pulls his erecting penis out of his boxers. "I would be a shame to throw away a skill from my highly unethical mind."

John grinned, "So instead you practice your new skill on me. I'm not complaining. Day twenty one if my count isn't wrong."

She starts stroking up and down. "You better not complain! I'll set Will on you if you do!"

They both laugh.

"From what I've heard he only likes women's arseholes, not mens, I think I'm safe."

Cindy does the hand job faster for a couple of minutes, his breathing gets heavier and heavier. "Never get a wax down there, he might change his mind."

John arches his back a little, feeling close to climax. "Steady on! Don't break it!"

"I'm trying something new today."

"When?"

"Seconds from now with a bit of luck." She lets her hair fall forwards so he can't see what's going on.

"Oh my GOD!" His body twists. "You feel so warm."

The hand movements slow and she leans back, brushes her hair aside, looks up to see his face, smiles and licks her lips. "How was that?"

"Fantastic! Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, do you, do you, do you, do you know what you're doing, doing, to me?"

"You're singing Kaiser Chiefs at me? That song's been haunting me. _Due to lack of interest tomorrow is canceled. Let the clocks be reset and the pendulums held._ "

"Oh, sorry."

"It's not your fault. The words keep popping into my head like they're important. Lack of interest in what? Still, I had regrets before I died, now I've got a second chance and can fulfil some of my wishes myself."

"Like what?"

"Not being so uptight about sex for one."

"What else?"

"Buying the clothes _I_ want, not what someone else wants me to wear. Spending more quality time with Sam. Travelling.."

"How can you afford that as a student?"

"As a favourite student Doctor Cindy Bexley left me a sizeable sum in her will. And a cat. Oh, and half a house."

"Eh? How? You'd need someone to witness it."

"Correct. Doctor Arakawa. Cindy left you money too, haven't they been in touch?"

"Shit! I thought they were reporters trying to get your story again! He's taking a risk isn't he?"

"He doesn't benefit in any way, so no reason for anyone to suspect him of foul play." Cindy chuckles and takes a tissue. "I think you should call them. Make yourself decent first. You don't want to be on the phone with your dick hanging out. And wipe off the ruby red lipstick."

"They wouldn't see it."

"No, but I'd rather you weren't having a somber talk about past me with it like that."

He makes himself decent and moves the chair back to the desk and winks. "Glad I could help with your essay questions. See you Wednesday?"

"You sure will." Cindy steps to the door, removes the bit of coat hanger and slides it into a pocket. "Be good."

"Your books?"

"Oh yeah! Sorry, my mind was on that protein shot."

"Good was it?"

Cindy raises her eyebrows a couple of times, licks her lips, "Not bad. Not as good as the canteen lunch though." She chuckles.

"What?"

"I had meat balls."

John fakes pain, "Ouch!"

"When is your birthday?"

"Next Tuesday."

"Nice!", Cindy winks, "See you Wednesday." She opens the door and listens, steps out having not heard any footsteps.

[Chapter-9](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-9-1)


	9. Chapter 9

"Chloe?"

She closes the door and turns to see one of the professors. "Hi."

"Is John free?"

"Um, he's phoning the people dealing with Cindy's will."

"I'll catch him another time then. How are you coping with things? I understand you'd got to know her quite well before joining us?"

"Yeah. Mostly good, I have my dark days."

"If you need help we have a good support network for students."

She was about to tell him off for calling her a student, reminded herself of her new identity. Did people in witness protection programs suffer from this? "Thanks. Who would I see?"

"Any of the staff, they'll get the team to contact you."

"Oh, okay. Thanks. Could you?"

"Certainly."

"Thanks. I better go type my notes up before I forget."

The walk to the library wasn't long. She spotted a group of fellow Alliance students close by and took an alternative route in. It wasn't that she didn't like them, she did, but holding back ideas of Doctor Cindy Bexley was hard in group discussions. Student not teacher was how she needed to be perceived. When she graduated that could change, but not now.

The library had two sections, one for strict silence, the other had a coffee bar and allowed people to listen to music with headphones or earbuds as long as they didn't turn it up too loud. They also lent out Macbook Pros. She signed one out and found a booth. Passing with a great grade was in theory a walk in the park. In practice not so easy. She had to develop a new writing style for Chloe that wouldn't read like Cindy. If Ruby had spent significant time in education there were no memories getting through. It was all parties and beach related. A memory of zipping up an orange high viz jacket and wrapping herself up in a sleeping bag hit her. Why would anyone be on a beach in freezing cold weather? There was clearly more to Ruby than parties. They said she shouldn't, what harm could it do? She starts Safari and Googles for Ruby Sea Rescue and pages through the results. None looked quite like the ones she wanted. She mouses over the image tab, hesitates for a few seconds. Click. The first screen full of images had RNLI boats, helicopters, pets, sea horses, staff, hovercraft, lipsticks, jewellery, nothing of use. She scrolls the page and gasps. The image is clicked, the page visited. Ruby and friend Lucy photography by friend Alice. The face she'd seen in the memories. Ruby and Lucy. "Oh my God!"

She reads the whole page. Learns why Ruby had spent so much time on the beach and why the memories had been so strong. Her father Jim was reportedly grief stricken, blamed himself for everything that had led up to Ruby's being swept out to sea. The poor family.

"Hi Chloe."

She jumps and closes the Mac fast, wipes a tear. "Hi."

"What's up?"

"Nothing."

"You looked well sad."

Cindy sighs, "I was thinking about the people who've died."

"Hopefully it stops hurting. I lost two good friends that day. I was sitting further back as I'd missed my normal bus, got there late."

"You were towards the back.." Cindy recalls seeing her sit down. Her block had been streaming data from the moment it was connected. "Or more in the middle?"

"Towards the back."

"Lucky for you. It must have been horrible."

"Yeah. Seeing your lecturer blown to bits.. I still have nightmares."

"It wasn't that bad was it?"

"They say the first blast must have knocked her out, the second one blown her to bits before her body hit the floor."

"Second? I don't remember.. reading about a second?"

"On the floor aimed at the stage is what they said. The blast from that one went outwards they said, not all directions. They still haven't caught the shit that did it, suspect it was an inside job. They interviewed us all for hours and hours."

"Oh." She stared at the table. Her stomach churned again. Hearing a detailed account of her own death was rather unsettling. The fact it could have been one of her own students.. Her stomach did an emergency lunch evacuation.

"Ewww! I'll get tissues."

Thank God she'd closed the lid on the Mac! She was grateful she'd not eaten the lot. Krystle returns seconds later, "Thank God the library keeps a load for people spilling coffee." She folds tissues around the bulk of it, wraps it in more, flips the lid on her water bottle and wipes down the Mac and table with wet tissues. "Feeling better? Or is there more to come up?"

"I think that's it. Thanks."

The young woman takes the tissues to a bin, drops then in and pulls out the plastic liner, ties a knot in it and drops it back in. She returns and takes a seat next to Cindy. "I'm Krystle, we've not spoken much before."

"Chloe."

"How are you finding Coopers lectures?"

"So so. You?"

"Tough. Flipping tough. I understand it at a high level, it's the nitty gritty details that aren't sinking in fast enough."

Groups was one thing. A one to one? Maybe she could handle that. "Maybe I can help? Cindy gave me private lessons, maybe the way she told me would help?"

"Oh wow! Would you? That would be awesome!"

"I'll do you a trade. Fresh bottle of water and a coffee and I'll give you an hour."

"Brilliant! Back in a sec!"

Cindy opens the Mac and quickly closes the page, erases browser history and download cache, enters the URL for her cloud hosted notes.

Krystle returns moments later with water, two coffees and mints. "Want a mint?"

"Yeah, please."

Krystle passes the pack, "Help yourself. I'm enjoying most of the course, it's just.."

"What?"

"What we're learning is almost out of date before a lecture ends."

"Yeah, it's advancing at a frightening pace. Which bits are you stuck on?"

Krystle laughs, "It would be easier to say which _weren't_ I stuck on. 

"Oh. Let's start right at the beginning then."

Two hours later Cindy returned a smile. "Okay?"

"Thanks! It all fits together now. Holy fuck! You should become a teacher, you're _awesome_."

"I don't know. I was just passing on what she told me, I might be rubbish at anything else."

"No, no, that was you not Doc Bex. You're different."

"Different how?"

"Um, it's hard to put my finger on it. You're similar, but not the same. Um, not as dry?"

Cindy thought of the sea, how her new body might have spent considerable time in it. Or under the waves. "What do you mean dry?"

"More.. I don't know, imaginative, different words. Words our generation would use? Maybe. Maybe it will come to me when I'm not thinking about it."

Cindy looks around the room, "There was one good thing to come out of the attack. No two. Increased security, and a makeover of the whole block."

"You'd seen it before?"

"I came to an open day." It was true, just not in this body or as visitor.

Krystle nods slowly in agreement, "Right. Yeah, it was looking tired. Having an enforced gap year was okay, I got to visit Disney with my kid sister, that was a load of fun."

[Chapter-10](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-10-1)


	10. Chapter 10

Her afternoon lecture was with Professor Schmitz and covered what he liked to call wetware, the human side of the equation. Specifically the brain. Having written a good part of that book in her Cindy Bexley years she found herself doodling. She took a photo and messaged it to Cooper asking _Any idea what this is?_.

Back home in the evening, in her own house, the one she was 'borrowing' from her past self, she got comfortable and put on Spotify. Jen had sent details for the rave; location and DJ names. Time for some study. What did the kids like? Or the DJs? A quick search found two Vimeo channels of fan recorded video. The quality was rubbish but good enough for Spotify to get matches. Slowly her new play list grew. She had the feeling she'd heard some of them before but was unsure if it was because Sam had played them or if it was more memories leaking in from Ruby.

Sam. Friday. The phone is switched to dial pad. Pausing for a moment she pulls the block from her bra and gives it a study. It was the latest generation, she'd used WiFi and fibre, hadn't given the other features much thought. Not good considering the role she'd played. She puts the phone down and goes to a draw unit, gets out her old Mac.

"Password, what were you?"

Cindy stares at the screen for an age. Bugger. She'd not used it for at least six months when alive, it wasn't coming back to her. It might have been recorded by the old block, if it had it hadn't been in the Push. Sam might know. She spins around and stretches out on the sofa, puts her head on one armrest, legs on the other. "Where's dauntless tonight?"

The phone rings. "Mum!"

"Sammy! What's happening?"

"Um, you're calling me?"

"I know. What are you up to? Other than answering the phone to me."

"Just writing up notes. Nothing exciting. You?"

"I was just going to use the old Mac and can't for the life of me remember the password. Do you?"

"Your phrase?"

"Remind me?"

"Sammy the jammy got a Mac. Daddy the dummy didn't. Capital S, t j g a m d t d d."

"Brilliant! What are you doing Friday night my dauntless daughter?"

"Dauntless?"

"I almost said I'd ask my daughter today, managed to stop at dau, it was the first word I could think of that sounded right as a descriptive word for you. My best friend Sam. It means invulnerable to fear or intimidation."

"Haha! Thanks! I like that. You always were the better one at Scrabble, even before you had that thing fitted. Nothing planned. Why?"

"Fancy joining me at a rave?"

Cindy rolls her eyes and waits as Sam has fits of laughter.

"Seriously Mum? A rave?"

"I need to fit in with the others. And I'm getting a second stab at my twenties."

"You hated my music!" There was a hint of laughter in Sam's voice.

"I wouldn't say hate, I just preferred something else. It's growing on me."

"Sorry is this Cindy or Ruby I'm talking to?"

"Cheeky cow! It's me!"

"But who is me?"

"Your mother Cindy!"

"Who calls herself Chloe and probably sounds like Ruby. Okay Mum, Friday night, I'll be your responsible chaperone. When and where?"

"11PM. I'll forward the address, it's in Hackney."

"Cool. I'll get the train straight after my last lecture. Fancy meeting up in Saint Pancras around eight and finding somewhere to eat first?"

"Sure."

"It's a date. What were you going to do with the Mac?"

"Connect to my new block and download the specs PDF, have a read."

"Sounds dull."

"If you don't know _why_ I want to have a read it might."

"What are you thinking?"

"And spoil surprises? I'll show you Friday if I get it working."

"Don't blow your brain up doing anything silly."

"I won't, what I plan to do will be safe. See you Friday then. Have fun with your notes."

"And you with your block reading. Bye Mum."

"Bye Sammy."

[Chapter-11](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-11-1)


	11. Chapter 11

Tuesday was dull Uni wise. She had one lecture in the morning on coding and the rest of the day free. She got back home, made some lunch and worked on her little project. It had been started as just a bit of fun, quickly grew into something much more serious, something she could turn into a formal project and submit as part of her course. The interface specifications in the PDF for the block had been detailed enough.

Half three she wriggles out of her jeans, changes into a big baggy hoody and starts dancing around the house to her playlist.

At six o'clock she flops onto the sofa and laughs. Two and a half hours of dancing! No way could old Cindy have done that, she didn't have the stamina. "Thank you Ruby!"

A film of sweat covered her body. She felt fantastic. Legs swung up onto the sofa she gets her feet together and knees apart and slides a hand into her panties. It's all done fast and before she realises what's happening. She frowns at the sight, "What other things are you going to teach me Ruby?"

She's close to climax when the door bell rings.

"You've got to be kidding me!" She races to the kitchen and washes her hand, races to the front door. Hiding behind it she opens and looks around it. "Hi?"

"Chloe Spencer?"

"Yes?"

"Package for you. Sign here please." Electronic pad signed the delivery man hands her a cardboard package. "Thanks. Good evening."

It's turned over, "Thanks."

Door closed she rips the anti-tamper seal off and opens the wrapping. It was a book.

Defending Britain. Twentieth-Century Military Structures In The Landscape by Mike Osborne.

The book cover had a photo that matched the structure from the memories. So that's what the thing was! "Cooper you star!" The kettle is filled and the book started. Molly does a lap around her legs, meows for food. "Hungry? Want some more?" She gets a bowl and spoons some tuna out of a tin. "There you go girl." She gets another and puts down fresh water.

Her phone chimes at eleven ten with a message from Sam. She dog-ears the page and puts the book down, scoops up the phone and dials. "Hi Sam, I'm still up."

"Hi Mum, what are we wearing Friday?"

"Whatever you'd like and can have a dance around in."

"Text me your sizes, I'm going shopping Thursday then."

"Oh, okay. We'll change after dinner?"

"That was the idea."

"Cool."

"Night Mum."

"Night Dear."

"You're going to have to drop the dear in public you know. You'll sound like Grandma. _Feeling alright in yourself dear_? I never understood why she said that. I mean you can't feel alright in someone else can you? Except for you now."

"I think what she'd mean by that is are you feeling okay body and mind."

"Are you Mum?"

"Yes. Yes I am. I was about to experience my first orgasm in over fifteen years when the bloody doorbell went."

"Mother!"

Cindy laughs, "You'll have to drop that too in public."

"It would get confused looks, especially if you have your block hidden."

"It fits my bra quite nicely. That's a thought, I could get one of the design students to cut me a foam block exactly the same size, pad both cups."

"A _Push_ up bra?"

"Haha, not funny."

"I thought it was rather good? They say men think with their dicks.."

"And we with our tits?"

"I don't have Lace, you do."

"True. Do you still have all those apps on your phone and the old one?"

"Yes?"

"Bring them Friday."

"Okay. Night _Chloe_."

"Night Sam."

Cindy hung up and got to bed.

[Chapter-12](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-12-1)


	12. Chapter 12

Cooper smiled as she walked into the lecture hall, block in hand. "And how is Ood seven today?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"The way some of you hold it you're like one of the Ood in Doctor Who. You're the seventh person I've seen do it today. If you hid them in a sphere with white LED inside.."

"Just don't.. my face looks nothing like one." Cindy feeds it into the neck of her top, pulls up her top and fits the block and cable comfortably into her bra. "That reminds me, I need to see the design team after your lecture. Sir, my face is up here?"

"Sorry! I don't usually get students partially stripping in my lecture hall. If you could do that elsewhere next time please."

Krystle laughs, "Not getting any sir?"

"If I am or not is no concern of yours thank you Krystle."

"If you're not come to our rave party, you might get lucky."

"I think I'd look out of place.."

"Nah, we get loads older than you sir."

"You do?"

"One's a grandma. Friday night at 11 in Hackney. We'll get you the address if you're up for it?"

He sees Cindy smile and nod slightly, "Why not, hopefully you don't find my dancing too embarrassing."

"We'll teach you new moves if it is."

"Hands up who's going?" Every hand raises. "Oh. In that case sure, it'll be like a team outing."

Jen sits up, "You paying for drinks then sir?"

"If you behave."

"Sweet!"

"Who's missing.. Will, Rabindra, Helen, anyone seen them?"

"Finishing breakfast sir."

"We'll give them five. Our Hump Day lecture will be the one I stopped early last time."

"Hump day middle of the week or hump day you're getting some?"

His phone chimed. "Sorry, one sec." he reads the message, frowns and puts the phone away. "Middle of the week Chloe, thanks for your concern, all of you, as I said earlier it's not something you should be worrying about."

The door bangs against the wall.

"There you are. Take a seat please and we'll begin."

John was interrupted a number of times by his chiming phone. Cindy was texting sweet nothings without touching her phone. That and corrections to some of the lecture content.

Lunch time she went to see the professor in the room opposite John's, when done crossed the empty hall and knocked on his door.

"Come in!"

She was in fast and locked the door. "I hope my messages didn't put you off too much."

"A little. Having Lace will be interesting."

"I called in at the design team, they quickly cut me a foam rectangle. I've repositioned the block, what do you think? Sam called it the _Push_ up bra."

He watches her pull her top up. "Oh dear."

"Why oh dear?"

"Now I really want to touch them."

She walks over and sits on his desk, "Feel free."

"Not here. We've got to stop."

"You don't like me anymore?"

"Of course I do. We should just do this sort of thing off campus."

She pulls the top down, "Right. My place tonight then."

"Um.."

"What do you mean Um?"

"Do I bring wine, chocolates or roses?"

"All three if you want. And condoms. God knows what this body got up to down there. Minor treatable STD could be anything."

John frowns, "You were told she had STD?"

"Not directly, I was awake pretending to be asleep."

"Sneaky."

"Not really, waking up after I should have been dead.. you'd do the same I'm sure."

"Probably. What are you wearing for the rave?"

"No idea, Sam's shopping for us both."

"Could she get me something?"

"I guess. Text her your sizes."

"Can I have her number?"

Cindy closes her eyes and concentrates. His phone chimes. "Done."

"Show off."

"That's just the tip of a very large iceberg."

"What have you come up with now?"

"You'll see, all in good time. Friday night don't spend too much time with me unless it looks like you're talking to Sam, we don't want the others thinking I'm a favourite. Fancy joining us both for dinner at St P?"

"Sure."

[Chapter-13](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-13-1)


	13. Chapter 13

Cooper arrived at seven, loaded down with flowers, chocolates, prosecco, condoms and Durex Play. "Had dinner?"

"Not yet. You?"

"No. Fancy a takeaway?"

"I'm not about to cook."

"I didn't expect you to. We can get a takeaway or sit down at a restaurant?"

"I'd have to get changed."

"I'm in no hurry, what would you rather?"

Cindy laughs, "They'd be wondering if you're my father or a sugar daddy."

"Have you thought about telling the world who you really are? It would make all this hiding in the shadows unnecessary."

"What on earth would I say? Hello world, you know me as Chloe, some may remember me as Ruby, in fact I'm Neural Lace expert Cindy Bexley, _surprise_!"

"Something like that, yes."

Cindy rips the film off the box of chocolates, "I can see that going well. Not!"

"Do you realise how unlike Cindy you sound already?"

She scans the menu and picks the orange fondant. "Of course I do, new body, acting my physical not mental age."

"Is it all an act?"

"Probably not. I've picked up things from Sam and the other students, kids I see about town."

"And Ruby?"

She shrugs, "Who knows, it's not as if I can have a conversation with her." She goes to a cupboard and gets out a vase, "Lovely flowers by the way, I've not seen that colour before. Where'd you get them?"

"A florists near me."

"If you look in the cupboard on the very left and the top there should be some glasses."

He walks over and looks, gets down a couple. "Want a glass now?"

"Yeah, why not. Lubricate the mind a bit before you get to playing with the stuff you brought in."

John goes a little red, "Familiar with it?"

"No, just seen the TV adverts."

"Likewise."

He removes the foil and wire from the bottle and nervously twists the cork.

Cindy shakes her head, "Inexperienced? Hold the cork firmly and twist the bottle. Holding the bottle from the base."

"Like this?"

"That's it. And when you feel it about to.." There's a pop and bubbles run from underneath his cork clenching fist. She laughs, "I was going to say slow down. I hope that's not a sign of things to cum."

"Hopefully not. That stuff is supposed to speed you up and slow me down." He nods to the packaging.

Cindy cuts the roses to length and arranges them in the vase, takes it to the coffee table. "Lovely!" She returns to get her glass, "Cheers!"

"Cheers!"

"I've not been on a date for years. Apart from a bit of naughtiness in your office which doesn't count.."

His eyebrows go impossibly high, "Naughtiness? That's a bit of an understatement Chloe X X X!"

She sniggers, sips some more Prosecco. "True. Let's eat in. What would you order?"

"If I was at mine, I'd order sushi. There's an awesome pair of sushi chefs that run a tiny place, take away only. Collecting some one night years ago I met Doctor Arakawa for the first time. He's a big fan of the stuff."

"You met him waiting for sushi?"

"He got my avocado sake maki, I got his futo maki. They mentioned our names and their error and the introduction was made."

"You'd not mentioned that before?"

"I've never been at your house discussing takeaway food before."

"Another truth. Would Deliveroo bike some over?"

"We could try. Shall I get a sampler, some of everything?"

"Okay. How long would it take?"

"About an hour?"

"Do it. I'll be in the bedroom, bring your glass and the other things. I'll be waiting." She grabs the bottle and slinks away.

John watches her go then gets out his phone and dials the guy that did most of his deliveries. "Hi Nigel, are you working tonight? Great! I was wondering if you can do a sushi run for me? I'm at a friends house, would be a lot further than normal. Thirty bonus for you if you can and can grab a bottle of Prosecco on the way. Yeah, I'll text the address. Awesome my man, I'll wire the money now. Cheers!"

He orders online and wires fifty to cover tip and drink. Phone slipped into a trouser pocket he grabs his drink and heads to the bedroom.

[Chapter-14](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-14-1)


	14. Chapter 14

Her clothes are draped over a chair in front of a dressing table, Cindy was propped up on a mountain of pillows, the bed sheet half covering her chest. In one hand she held a glass, the other Defending Britain. "Thanks for the book by the way."

"What's that?"

She frowns at him, "The book you sent."

"I've not sent anything? Let me see?"

"You must have done. I sent you the message asking what my doodle was."

"I got the message, didn't know what it was. Didn't you see my reply?"

"What reply?"

Phone pulled from pocket he checks his message. "Damn. Failed to send. I didn't know what it was. Someone must have seen you doodle."

"But nobody else knows.. rats. I told Jen. It was from her. She was sat next to me. If she watched me send the message she might have seen your name or initials at the top. How the hell did she get my address?"

"If she did.."

"Then I might have to go public." She puts her glass down, drops the book on the floor. "That's a problem for another day. Six-pack John, let me see what got you the nickname."

He starts unbuttoning his shirt. "Where'd you hear that?"

"I used the pool, the lady on reception gave me a guest pass."

"The red head or brunette?"

"Red."

"She's terrible." He takes off his shirt and rests it over her clothes, takes off shoes and socks, gets his trousers loosened.

"Where on earth did you get those?"

He looks down at his Uomo boxer shorts. "Would you believe me if I said a tourist gift shop? I thought they might come in handy."

"If we get stuck for ideas?"

"You never know."

"Throw them over."

He pulls them down and does as asked.

They're turned around and around, "Did you look at them before buying them?"

"Not in detail."

"If they're supposed to be Kama Sutra positions you've been had. What's that supposed to be?"

"Um.."

"And this one? And the woman standing on her own posing in skimpy knickers and a vest top? You'd have been better off buying the book."

"Oh well. I'll try this one for a bit of fore play."

"Really? STDs?"

"Really. Up you get."

"No, we can't, not until I get the lab results back. I don't want you infected with God knows what."

He pulls the sheet back, "Then I'll try something else." He climbs onto the bed with the Play lube and smiles, "You're still Cindy Bexley?"

"Why?"

"Fingering a student until she orgasms wouldn't sit well in my mind."

"I am she. I won't suddenly become Ruby and Chloe's just a cover."

"Good, I'd feel like a monster if you did."

"Confident re the orgasm bit are you?"

"Not especially, but I did some reading."

"Which book?"

"Not a book. Askmen.com. Where I read that the clitoris is the only organ in the human body that exists exclusively for pleasure!" He pops open the lube and squirts some on his finger tips, "Allegedly this will make you even more sensitive."

She'd played with it herself before the book delivery, having someone else touch it was electric. She cupped her breasts and played with her nipples as he got her more and more aroused. "Kiss me."

John changes position to get beside her and slides one arm behind and around her, cups her left breast. With the other he resumes the clitoris massage and turns to see her smiling face. Their warm tongues meet. Within minutes Cindy Bexley is experiencing the most powerful orgasm she's had in years. Possibly ever. A hand is lowered and placed over his to stop him, "That was mind blowing."

"Where's your block?"

"In the sideboard draw."

"You disconnected? You don't want this recorded?"

"I thought it would get in the way."

"Cindy Bexley, the lady that loves research passes up the chance to get data to study, amazing, I never thought I'd see the day."

"You wouldn't be put off by it?"

"No."

"Okay." She turns and leans, opens the draw and gets it out. Sitting up she flicks her hair forward and feels for the interface, parts her hair repeatedly until the socket is uncovered, lets the super magnet connector snap into place. A quick head shake and it's hidden. "Think you can do it again?"

"Definitely."

They both move to get back into position and bump heads.

"Sorry."

"Sorry too."

Fifteen minutes later she's arching her back and twisting her hips as a third powerful orgasm hits. They'd kissed for a while until John moved to lick and gently suck on a nipple while teasing the other with his fingers. There's a soft buzzing sound. "Oh my God that was a body shaker. You're hired! Free most nights?"

John chuckles, "Not unless you want the six-pack to go. At my age it needs a lot of maintenance."

"Shame. What sort of.." the buzz sounds again. "Is that your phone?"

"Nigel! Shit! It can't be an hour already surely?" He scrambles off the bed and gets the phone from his pocket. "He's outside! Either the sushi guys gave my order priority or he broke speed limits to get here."

"Or both?"

He jumps into his trousers and carefully does up the zip. "Won't be a sec, stay right there gorgeous." He races from the room.

"Gorgeous? I'll take that. Nobody ever called me that in my old body." She sighs, a staccato sigh still recovering from the last orgasm.

She hears whispering and the front door close, seconds later he enters the bedroom holding two trays of food and a bottle.

"Close the door, we don't want Molly trying to grab sushi."

He' grins wickedly and pushes it closed with a foot, "Want to do more research data gathering?"

"Like what?"

"Tasting some of the worlds most flavour packed food while having an orgasm?"

"You've got a bit of a kink in that mind of yours John Cooper."

"You put it there with your office party trick."

"Did I?"

"It wasn't there before."

"Okay. How do we do it?"

"We get a bit of sushi all prepared, you pop it in just as you feel you're about to get one."

"Tell me what to do."

John opens the first tray and points, "Take one of those, pour a few drops from that over it, put a slice of ginger from there over it."

"That's ginger?"

"Sliced super thin and soaked in something, I forget what."

"Like this?"

"That's it. Now don't pop it in until the last moment."

He puts the tray down and gets lube on his fingers and starts the massaging.

Five minutes later his hand is starting to cramp. "Not feeling it?"

"I'm close, don't stop!"

He changes fingers quick and keeps going. Seconds later she pops the sushi in and starts chewing, a split second later she brings her legs together as an even more powerful orgasm hits. She does a high pitched whimper and chews, breathes heavily through her nose. She orgasms again without any help from John, his hand clamped between her legs.

"Your face said that was good."

She swallows, "Orgasmic! My views on you have change Cooper, I think it would be fair to say I'm in love."

"Really?"

"Really."

"Thanks. You know I loved you from the start, your mind at first."

"Start? Ruby's body start?"

"No. Cindy Bexley. Why do you think I'd stick with you on such crap grant wages?"

"Are you being serious?"

"May mother nature strike me down with a heart attack if I'm not telling the truth." He pauses for effect. "Still here."

Cindy leans in for a kiss. "Your turn to have a bit of sushi. She wriggles down the bed and preps it, lies on her back and places it on her belly. "No hands or chopsticks allowed."

"It's missing something. One sec." he gets wasabi and places a bit in her belly button, "There, that's better."

"Why didn't you put some with mine?"

"You might have found it too much."

"Let me try."

He gets a bit with chopsticks and feeds her.

She coughs, "Yeah, much too much!"

"It's an acquired taste." He gets his head over her belly, licks the wasabi out getting much giggling and wriggling and gets the sushi into his mouth. "Yum!"

"Your turn."

Almost an hour later she places the last bit of sushi on his six-pack. "What's this one called again?"

"California maki roll."

"I'm going to learn how to make that myself."

"Yeah? Fancy finding a sushi class somewhere?"

"Sure sugar."

"Sugar?"

"Sugar daddy."

John chuckles, "Can you go public? Having things in the open will make life so much easier. You could teach again too, not pretend to be a student."

"I'm considering it. Where's the pack of condoms?"

[Chapter-15](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-15-1)


	15. Chapter 15

A lecture free Thursday flew past at home, lots of new code being written for her block. It had crazy amounts of storage for data from the Lace, it wasn't equipped with that much storage or RAM for its own firmware. Code had to be tight and efficient to the extreme.

Friday morning after a great night's sleep she opens up the Mac and writes an email to the design team asking them to double or quadruple the firmware flash storage and RAM. She's about to click Send when she realises the account in the From: field had her c.bexley@alliance.ac.uk email address. "Hell's bells! That was close!"

She's halfway through signing up for another email address in Chloe's name when she has a change of heart, Cooper's question echoing in her mind. An email from that address would set the group on fire. She adds a couple of lines of private information. Nothing that would cause scandal, just let a key number of readers know it was her and not an imposter.

She types a new paragraph at the bottom, "I am not, nor ever have been, gay. I will continue to support my gay friends, stand for their right to be so. There's nothing worse than being labelled incorrectly. Lace up your bootstraps.. Let's PUSH things forward. Cindy X."

The mouse hovers over the Send button. "One of, no, _the_ greatest discovery I made needs to go public. Push!" She clicks. "Time I got my arse in gear!"

Mac put away she races to the shower, has a wash and thinks about what to wear. Something nice she could wear to the restaurant after Uni. The short red halter neck dress and black heals, that would do. Finished with a black belt and Ruby red lipstick. Her hat-tip to the previous owner.

Twenty minutes later she's sat on the end of the bed slipping on heals. She always wore flat or court shoes in her past life. This body felt like it was no stranger to all sorts of footwear. It dawns on her that she has no recollection of putting on the dress and belt. The back of her head is touched, there was the block connector. The cable is followed down the back of her neck. Her hand traces the cable to her side and up to her strapless bra. She'd done the Push up blocks thing. She goes to the bathroom to have a wee and freezes for a moment. "Oh my God!"

A short run and she's grabbing her phone, unlocking it and starting the camera app, switching to video mode as she returns. She opens the sink's hot tap and steps backwards, starts recording.

The first bit of mirror was still misted up but the added steam makes it clearer. "R x?"

Her hand starts shaking slightly as the fogging of the mirror slowly rises to reveal the whole message. _You and I are going places. Love R x_.

"Oh my lord! Can you hear me Ruby?" She sensed no reply, mental or physical. Love Rx. She hadn't been hostile. "If you can hear me, I'm going to a rave tonight. If you're able to, have some fun. Don't do anything to disrupt the Lace, my skills are worth a fortune. Someone's already killed me once because of the work I do, don't make us die again. Okay."

The last word hadn't been a question or statement. It felt like an answer.

She has a quick wee, grabs her keys, purse and phone and throws them into a small bag, gets her rucksack full of lecture and study things and runs for the bus.

As she waits for it her hands are checked. There was a slight shaking. More out of excitement than fear. History was littered with stories of scientists, doctors and even just the untrained curious that had experimented on themselves in order to prove a hypothesis. She'd come up with Push, Cooper had executed it with help from Arakawa. Could Ruby be pulled back from organ memory?

Sat on the top deck of a Boris Bus she opens her rucksack to get out a folder. Jan had put everyone's contact details on a sheet of paper and photocopied it for the group, she'd spend the short journey committing them to memory. Her own, not the block's. In front of the folder was Defending Britain. She smiles and pushes it forwards, grabs the folder and turns to the photocopy.

Number memory tested she puts the folder away and checks her location. Another five minutes in this heavy traffic and she'd be there. She goes to zip up the bag and notices a second tiny gap in the pages of Defending Britain. A second page had been dog eared. She's just about to pull it out when a young boy sits next to her.

"You're pretty."

She turns to see him looking up at her. He can't have been much older than four. "Thanks! You're a handsome young man."

"Geoff! Stop pestering the girls!"

Cindy turns to see the boy's mother approaching. "He's no bother."

"Not yet. Give him long enough.. Come on Geoff, this is our stop."

The boy stands and is picked up by his mother. "Have a good day."

"You to."

"Bye lady!"

Cindy chuckles, "Bye young man."

His mother is almost out of sight down the stairs when she turns and smiles, "He's not a young man, he's a little monster." She winks.

"Muuuumm! I'm not a monster!"

"You're Mummy's Monster."

The bus stops and they were out.

Cindy watches mother and son walk down the road in the same direction as the bus. Geoff waves back as she waves to him. She recalls how Sam had been at that age. Quite a monster in her own right. She bends to zip up her bag and sees a tiny packet of Parma Violets. "Aw Thanks Geoff!" It's quickly unwrapped. One's about to be popped into her mouth when she gets a horrible feeling that they weren't sweets. She drops the lot into a side pocket on the rucksack and heads for the stairs.

[Chapter-16](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-16-1)


	16. Chapter 16

In the lecture hall everyone is standing in a group, some of the gang were in outrageous dance wear already.

Jen sees her enter, "Chloe! Have you heard?"

"Heard what?"

"Bexley!"

"What about her?"

"She's _not_ dead!"

"Huh? But Krystle said she was blown to bits?"

"PUSH!"

"Push what?"

"Cindy's last invention! She was pushed into something new!"

Will waves his hands about, "She could be the first HAL, her mind running in some sort of giant computer!"

Rabindra shakes his head, "I can't see her enjoying that. One of those advanced robots maybe?"

Cindy smiles, nods her head, "Like that Sophia one, or one that the Chinese made last year. But what makes you think it's possible?"

"Google for Cindy Bexley Returns!"

Cindy takes off her rucksack and puts it on her seat, returns to the group, notices that some of the others had watched her do it, were frowning. "What?"

"That seat."

"What about it?"

"Cindy's seat."

"Huh?"

"That was her favourite seat when the staff sat to watch other lecturers."

"I sat there because nobody else did. She'd sit there?"

"Yeah."

Cindy fakes a shiver, "Spooky. Cindy Bexley Returns? Just those three words?"

Rabindra nods, "They're enough."

Cindy looks at the results returned, the time at the top of the screen and frowns hard. She'd sent the email just under an hour ago. Talk about viral! "Wow. Who broke the news?"

Will frowns, "Broke it?"

"Who published first?"

Cooper enters the hall.

Jen spins around, "Sir! Have you heard?"

"Heard what?"

"Cindy. She's alive!"

John Cooper genuinely looks shocked. He hadn't expected this to happen so fast. He fights the urge to look at Cindy, Chloe, Ruby, whatever name it was she wanted to be known by. "What do you mean?"

"She sent an email to the the Alliance design team asking for better firmware storage in the block. It was from her account and two Alliance senior members say the funny bit she added was _only_ known to them."

Will raises a hand, "Can we use the white wall?"

John frowns, "Sure, what for?"

"We want to check all the web sites, see who published first, to write the lists."

"Okay. If this is true the lecture can wait. I want to know who has what information. Can someone go get extra pens? We'll do mind maps old school."

Sally puts a hand up, "I'll go. Anything else?"

"A couple more erasers, that's it. Try and get a mix of colours."

"Sure."

John looks around the group, "She was working on a technique she called Push.."

Krystle nods, "We know sir, it's in her email."

"You've seen it?"

"It's on the web sites. In full. She mentioned you."

"She did?"

"Um.. where.. _My dear long suffering understudy Prof Cooper, thanks for putting up with my terrible cups of weak tea!_ "

John chuckled, "Those cups of tea were _so_ strong."

"Strong?"

"Calling them weak was a joke she'd make. Let's make a start." He gets the room's projector working and opens a browser. The video glitches a little, the PC base being in another room thanks to the university's continued insistence to keep all large hardware items out of the lecture halls. "Do you want to start with a Google search?"

Will nods. Sally returns with pens.

"Okay. Jen, Krystle, Sally, Chloe, you're team leads of four teams; Black, Blue, Green, Red. Split the rest of the gang up between you. I'll call out web site names for each team. You visit the sites and record when they posted, any facts that are not covered by the email."

"Sir?"

"Yes Chloe?"

"Why am I red?"

"You're the one in a Ruby red dress, Jen's in black, Krystle in blue?"

"Oh. So we are."

Sally laughs, "Want me to go change? It's not green out of the box but can be, but you'll be green with envy."

Jen turns to face her, "You didn't?"

Sally grins, "Oh yes I did!"

"Bloody hell Sally!"

John frowns, "Did what?"

"A friend of mine makes alternative dance outfits. It's covered in neopixels sir."

"In what?"

"Addressable LED. It will pulse and shift patterns to the music."

"When you say _it_ , what exactly?"

"A body suit. Like a morph suit. When they lower the lights it should look fantastic. She buys the LED and electric thread in bulk, so it didn't cost too much."

Cindy steps to her side, "Can I have a word?"

"Um, sure, about the LED?"

"Yeah. Sir, can you give us a minute?"

"Take five. I could do with a good strong cuppa. Everyone, go get drinks, snacks, whatever, we'll then start our data collection. I wasn't in the mood to do a standard lecture today, let's have some fun!"

The room empties leaving Sally and Cindy.

Sally gets her phone out, plays a video. "This was the test we did last night."

"Wow! The thing's driven by music?"

"Yeah."

"What's the control board like?"

"An Arduino Mega. She says it has to be a Mega or Trinket as the pixels have to have accurate timing signals."

"So another computer could talk to the pixels via a Trinket acting as a bridge?"

"I guess so."

"Hmm."

"What are you thinking?"

"Give me a sec." Cindy does a few searches on her phone. "Blimey they're small! Shame we can't go more direct. What I'm thinking is Block to Pi Zero W to Trinkets to NeoPixels. Then you could control it all with your thoughts."

"That would be _amazing_! How long would it take to do?"

"The code? Hours. Getting the hardware, days maybe."

Sally puts up a finger, "Hold that thought." She dials. "Hi Jane, got Trinkets? How many? Great!" She holds her phone to her chest, "What was the other bit?"

"Raspberry Pi Zero W."

"A Raspberry Pi Zero W?"

"No? Drat. They would? Awesome! Could you? One of the other girls in my lecture group has an idea. A game changer. Yes. Here? That would be awesome! I'm sure we could find a bench somewhere. Thanks! Yeah, see you soon. Call me when your here." She hangs up. "A costume maker friend of hers has Pi Zero W she says, she'll pick one up on the way, she needs a soldering iron, her's has packed up."

"She's keen!"

"She's coming tonight to film me, she's always looking for new ideas, working with others. And it sounds like Sir is up for doing different stuff today."

Cindy smiles, closes her eyes and concentrates. "Done." She opens them to see a puzzled Sally. "I just requested a table and soldering equipment."

"From who?"

"The uni."

"Via your Block?"

"Yup. Cool eh? Cindy was giving me private lessons before I joined, shared some of her ideas for future Block features."

"Which model do you need?"

"The latest with Bluetooth and WiFi."

"Oh. I've got the older one."

"Oh bo.. Crap. My idea won't work without it. How long have you had your one?"

"Seventeen months."

"So not eligible for replacement yet. How can we get you a new one? Let me send someone a message." She closes her eyes and thinks for a moment. "Okay. Question asked. No guarantee he'll say yes."

"Who he?"

"A doctor I know." She feels her phone buzz and closes her eyes. "Awesome! He's ordering a Taxi to bring one over."

"What? A Block out of contract costs _thousands_! Who the flipping hell do you know?"

"Sam Bexley, Cindy Bexley, a few doctors. I can't say who's supplying, soz."

Sally gives her a suspicious look, "What did Cindy teach you?"

"Everything! And I've sampled that tea. Eugh. She really couldn't make a decent cuppa. Or spagbol. She always overcooked the spaghetti." And that was the truth. Anyone could ask Sam.

"Why you?"

"Family connections. Luck really, my Dad met her Dad on holiday, got talking over beers as they do. Her Dad felt sorry for me missing the first year and asked Cindy if she could help."

The others return on-mass. John frowns, "You two not wanting drinks?"

"Sir, Chloe has a Block idea that would be _awesome_ for the rave tonight, can a friend of mine come in?"

"I'd have to sign them in and you'd have to escort them everywhere. And I mean _everywhere_."

"Cool. Can you, she's on her way to drop off parts."

There's a knock at the door. John walks over and opens it, one of the maintenance team wheels in a long flat trolley with a couple of fold out tables.

"Where d'you want them boss?"

"By the bottom of the steps? Then they can make and watch."

"Sure boss."

John's about to let go of the door when it's knocked on again.

"Someone order a soldering station?"

Cindy puts up a hand, "We did, thanks. Sorry Sir, we sort of preemptively requested them as you said.."

"It's okay. If the creative juices are flowing who am I to stop you. Cindy had moments like this, carry on."

"Thanks!"

He returns the smile. She wasn't talking like old Cindy. Every time they met she sounded a little different. Blending in. Still good old Cindy under the hood though, mind still coming up with new ideas. "Want to get your teams going while we wait for the friend?"

"Yes sir."

[Chapter-17](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-17-1)


	17. Chapter 17

John has them all stand in a large arc as they review the writing on the wall, Cindy, Sally and visitor Jane too. "This one says _A source_ , doesn't name them and was published much later. Does anyone believe all the things they say?"

They all shake heads. A hand goes up.

"Chloe?"

"If she was running in all the servers at Google I think our searches would have been screwed up don't you?"

"I do. So this one's out. Who else can we easily dismiss? Sally, one from your list please."

"One? How about the whole flippin list? She's the new OS for HP? You don't die and come back as an OS shipped on new PC to the masses, that's just BS. And the ones that say she's now in a Boston Dynamics robot dog? I mean, how f'ing thick or nasty would you be to do that to the lady who did so much to crack the problems with the early technology? And she's now in RoboThespian's body? Get real. The bottom one, um, third down, two up from bottom published their crap first, the others all copied."

"By so extension Jen, Krystle, we can cross out what?"

The two step up and cross out a large number of sites.

"Good. You too Chloe."

She does as asked.

"Okay.. That leaves eight. Anyone want to cross out anything?"

Their visitor puts a hand up, "I do."

She takes a pen offered by Will and steps to the lists and crosses one out.

"Why that one?"

"I know the author. His post is not to be trusted, he writes nothing but fiction."

"Know of him or know him personally?"

"Personally. He's my half brother."

John has a good laugh, "Sorry, from your face I take it you find that embarrassing. Any others you know personally?"

"No, sorry."

"Seven. Anyone able to discredit any of them? No? What do they have in common?"

Jen looks at the coloured mind map they'd drawn. "Easy. They all say Push has been used to get her into a new body. A human body."

There's mumbling and nods from most of the group.

Cooper looks at the mind map. "Four say her data was sent to Japan, two say America, one says it was done in the UK. Thoughts?"

One of the quieter students raises a hand.

"Changying?"

"The Register. They wrote first. The other six after. The other six also have a subset of the facts from the first article."

"Indeed they do. Does everyone agree?"

There's a chorus of "Yes sir."

"According to the article there are now three hundred thousand Neural Lace owners in the UK. Being Alliance members we know the real figure is much higher. And just because the op was done in the UK it doesn't mean the person lives in the UK. Many people travel here for the operation. She could be anywhere."

Krystle turns to look at Chloe, "She could be right here on campus."

Cooper nods, "She could well be. The odds against it are incredible though. It would be rather nice to think that she was."

Cindy smiled. Thank you John. Not just yet. "Right here? Who? Given all the private lessons she gave me, meals she cooked Sam and I, the friendship we made, you'd think she'd have said hello rather than hide? We could get a list of everyone who's got Lace, find out when they had it fitted?"

Cooper shakes his head, "That would be taking personal data protection rights into a dangerous place."

"What if they were asked to volunteer the information?"

Jen nods. "I know of two girls who've had it fitted this month."

Cooper shakes his head again, "That would get you everyone on campus. What if she's not on campus, how do you get the many thousands of others?" He checks his watch, "A thought to explore on Monday. We have a guest and time is marching on. How far did you get Jane?"

"We've got half the trinkets stitched on, the Pi too. Enough to demonstrate if Chloe can get her code in Sally's block."

They all turn to see Chloe.

"I need to get the new Block from reception and ten minutes to upload the code."

"Off you go then. Want to get changed Sally? You can use the old equipment room now it's empty."

"Okay."

Cindy races out of the room and heads to the main reception. Taking the stairs up to the ground floor she sighs heavily, "That was close! I want my moment at the end of the night not before the fun." A fast walk gets her out of their block, across the road into the main building. A London campus had advantages and disadvantages. Traffic being one of the major disadvantages. She breathed as little as possible, air pollution was terrible despite the Mayor's clean air charge. She pulls on the door handle with both hands and slips inside.

"Hello, how can I help?"

"You have a package for me from Doctor Arakawa? I'm Chloe."

"If you could sign here." She's handed a pen.

"Okay." She goes to automatically sign C Bexley and changes the scribble last moment.

"Here you are."

The doctor had put it inside a larger box.

"Thanks."

As she heads back she rips the anti-tamper join open and looks inside. One new block and two cables and a note.

'Dear C,

One new block as requested, fully charged. And two of the new ultra-low profile connection cables. I would appreciate your feedback on them.

Yours faithfully, Doctor Godzilla.'

She narrowly avoids walking into another pedestrian and enters their block. She pulls against the tape holding it to the base of the box and lifts one of the cables out and looks at the connector. It wasn't like hers, a centimetre thick with small magnets to hold the thing in place, the whole body _was_ a magnet. Super thin. It's label said Sleep Safe. "Brilliant!"

She hurries down the stairs and races to the lecture hall.

Inside she finds the group standing around Sally. She looked like Venom from Spider-Man minus the teeth. "Sir, you should know how to initiate a Block upgrade the best." It's handed over.

"Didn't she teach you?"

"One of possibly many things she didn't cover."

"Oh. Okay. Everyone watch in case you need to do one. It's quite simple and automated." He goes to the keyboard and types a URL. A form opens. In the second field he types the long serial number of the new block, "If we can have your current one Sally?"

Janes steps around Sally and unzips a pouch on the back, hands it to Sally.

She disconnects it and does a little twitch. "Here you go."

John gets the number into the first field. "If you can type your secret code into the last field and click Go.

Sally gets to the keyboard, looks around the group. "A bit of privacy please?" Backs all turned to her she taps in her phrase and clicks. "Now what?"

"That's it. You can power the new one up. When the status light goes solid green not flashing you can power the old one down. Best to hook the old one up to fibre to ensure everything is taken from it."

"What do I do with the old one?"

"Send it back for a refund."

"What! I get money back?"

"You didn't know?"

"How much?"

He scrolls the page. "That model, a grand and a half."

"Holy cow! That pays for the costume and more!"

Cindy steps close, "He sent us two cables too, the new ultra low profile ones." One is handed over. "I'll switch to mine when I change tonight. Let's get the code in, it'll be lunch time soon."

[Chapter-18](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-18-1)


	18. Chapter 18

Cindy left the lecture hall, locked her rucksack away and went for another swim. John was working on his abdominal wall upstairs in the gym. They had an hour and a bit before they'd head to Plum and Spilt Milk for a top notch dinner. It was John's choice, an early celebration as he'd be having the operation on his birthday.

She blew out and emptied her lungs as she got towards the end of the pool, surfaced to take a rapid breath and turned and dived. Her head was beginning to go a little light when she surfaced at the other end. She'd done it! A whole length underwater.

The life guard on duty slow claps. "Don't do that with other life guards about please, they freak out a bit."

She pulls herself up and rests her folded arms on the side of the pool. "Why?"

"One man tried, not as strong a swimmer, passed out at the bottom of the deep end."

"Oh. Okay. You're okay with it though?"

"I was paying attention, watching your arms and legs."

"Thanks."

"I've not seen you before, new member?"

"Yeah, my professor got me a guest pass. I'm signing up next week."

"Good for you. I'm on duty between five and nine every week day for the next two months. Then my shifts change again."

"You'll be seeing a lot of me then."

"I'm seeing quite enough at the moment."

Cindy looks down and realises her chest was looking rather nice, sat on top of her arms. "Oh. Like what you see?"

"I do. I'm not supposed to ask customers, fancy a date?"

She smiles, "Sorry, I'm seeing someone."

"Oh well. My loss."

Cindy turns and does another lap, this time on the surface sticking to breaststroke. She laughs to herself, who on earth had named it that. Had it been a woman and had she stroked her breasts in doing the move?

At the far end she does a quick turn and swims the first few meters underwater. Surfacing she sees the life guard has taken his shoes off and is sitting on the pool edge. "What's your name?"

"Tim."

"Hi Tim. I'm Chloe."

"Hi Chloe."

"Chat up all the female customers do you?"

"No. You're the first."

"Why me?"

He shrugs, "Something about you is different to everyone else."

"Like what?"

He shrugs again, "No idea. I like someone or I don't. Can anyone really explain why they like someone? Maybe those Lace people can figure it out one day."

"Maybe we can."

"We? You're one of them? Designer or wearer?"

"Both." She flashes a smile and turns to do another lap.

She's half way down when she's startled by another swimmer surfacing just in front, face up. "John!"

"Evening gorgeous."

"I thought you had to work on that six-pack?"

"I did for a bit, there's too many meat heads students waiting on equipment now."

"Meat heads?"

"Roid rage meat heads. The steroid takers. I usually wait until later in the evening when they've gone. Can you swim underwater?"

"I can."

"Join me at the bottom by the steps." He swims away fast, turns over and dives.

The last thing she could see of him above the water was him bum then legs. "Nice butt!" She takes a deep breath and dives. He was at the bottom holding onto the bottom step. As she gets close he holds his other hand out, takes hers and pulls her close, wraps his arm around her waist and gives her her first underwater kiss. She fights the urge to wriggle free and surface for air as long as possible. He lets go of the step and pulls on one higher. They both surface to see the life guard standing feet away.

"Are you two trying to give me heart palpitations! For fuck sake!"

John smiles, "Sorry Tim."

"Are you two.. holy shit!"

"Tim, meet Chloe."

"We've met. Lucky bastard. Does the Uni know?"

"They will do by the end of tonight. We're all going to a party. Want to join us? It's a rave in Hackney."

"I promised my brother I'd drive him and the rest of the band down to Cornwall for a gig, otherwise I'd say yes. My loss twice in one day."

Cindy smiles, "Chin up, you might strike lucky at the gig."

[Chapter-19](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-19-1)


	19. Chapter 19

They'd both decided to get out of the pool, change and head over to the station to meet Sam. With a bit of time to kill they walked slowly around the station.

Cindy stopped outside Pink. "Now that's a nice colour."

"Which one?"

"That salmon pink one."

"Pink from Pink? You think it would suit me?"

"Try one on. My early birthday present."

"Okay."

While he's in the changing room she looks through the cufflink collection, waves a member of staff over. "Can I have some the Circle Wheel cufflinks quickly please?"

"Deep red, ruby red or purple?"

"Take a guess."

He looks at her lipstick and dress. "Ruby?"

"Yes. Yes."

The man frowns and gets a boxed pair from the cupboard below. He stands to see a few notes being held out. "Anything else?"

"The shirt in a moment, but this is a surprise."

"I see." He places the box behind the till and quickly gets it rung up, sorts out her change. It's in her purse just as John steps out of the changing room, the cufflinks still on the counter.

"I like it, wasn't sure it would suit me, what do you think?"

The shop assistant steps around the counter, steps around his customer, "A perfect fit sir. The colour suits you to. Where are you from?"

"I'm British. But a bit of a Heinz 57. A bit of British, Scottish, French, Greek, Italian.."

"That's quite a mix sir."

"That's just the ones I know about. My ancestors traveled a lot."

The salesman steps backwards towards Cindy. She goes to step away until she realises he had the box of cufflinks in his hand. "Would Sir like something to go with the shirt?"

"Such as?"

"Some simple knots?"

"Knots?"

"Like cufflinks sir."

John walks over to the counter, "What have you.. those! It _has_ to be those!"

"Which ones sir?"

John taps the glass, "Those!"

"I'm sorry sir, I just sold the last set."

"Can't I have those?"

"We don't sell the demonstration ones sir."

John feels Cindy pulling at his shirt sleeve. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to fit your other birthday present."

He looks down, "You're kidding me! He sold them to you! Fantastic!"

Cindy looks up into his eyes and smiles, "Happy birthday handsome."

"Thanks gorgeous." He bends slightly for a kiss.

"Anything else I can help with sir?"

"That's it."

Cindy holds out a card. "He'll wear it now, can we have a small bag for his old shirt pleae?"

The salesman waves another member of staff over, "Could you get the gentleman's shirt from the changing room and slip it into a bag please?"

Transaction done he returns the card, "Have a good evening."

Sam's train was on time, she came running across the concourse with two large shopping bags. "Hi! I missed lunch getting the last of the stuff, I'm starving! Where are we going?"

John smiles, "Hi Sam, I've booked the three of us a table at Plum and Spilt Milk."

"What's the dress code like?"

"You'll be fine as you are. Let me carry those."

"Thanks. You like nice, you too Mum."

"Thanks."

"Do you like the shirt and cufflinks I just got for an early birthday present?"

"I do. You've got an item that matches Mum's red then."

"And boxers to match."

Cindy blushes a little, "Was that a surprise for later?"

"Maybe."

Sam looks between the two, "Are you officially an item?"

"Not officially, I'm making the announcement at the end of the party."

"That you're a couple?"

"That we're a couple and that I'm Cindy Ruby Bexley."

"Huh?"

"I'm going to officially change my middle name out of respect for Ruby."

John frowns, "Change it? I didn't know you had one?"

"Paula. I never liked it or used it."

[Chapter-20](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-20-1)


	20. Chapter 20

Sam went to great lengths to stress that they didn't want large portions, they'd be dancing late evening. She settled on a vegetarian dish, not fancying any meat tonight. "Why did you want the old phone too?"

"You'll see.."

"All in good time? How many times have you said that one Mum?"

"Zillions!"

A waitress steps to the table balancing three plates. "One asparagus?"

"Me please."

John smiles as the two chicken dishes were passed to Cindy and himself, "Can we have the same drinks again please?"

"Of course sir, can I get you any sauces, mustards?"

"I'm good, ladies?"

"I'm good, Sam?"

"Um, can we have a bottle of champagne we can take away? Only it's a special night and the venue won't have any."

"I'm sorry miss, we're not licensed to see drink for consumption off the premises."

"Oh, not even the miniature ones?"

"Sorry."

John waves a hand, "Don't worry, we'll get some elsewhere."

"Thank you sir. I'll be straight back with the drinks."

John gets out his phone, puts it on the table on speaker, "Hopefully the man that can is working tonight.." the phone answers. "London's Premiere Champagne and Sushi Specialist here, how may I be of assistance this evening?"

John chuckles, "My man! You really delivered the other night. How'd you like to earn an even bigger bonus?"

"I'm all ears."

"I'm heading to a party with friends in Hackney. It starts at 11PM. I want plastic glasses and bottles of Champagne there for about ten forty five."

"I can go home, get the car and make it my last job. How many bottles? It's six large glasses to a bottle."

"Um.. gosh. Twenty five bottles and forty glasses?"

"How much should I spend per bottle?"

"Up to twenty five? There's a ton in it for you."

"Christ! Can I call myself your official concierge?"

John laughs, "If it helps, sure. I'll get the address to you in a sec and wire the money."

"Thanks. I better go find someone doing plastic glasses. See you in a few hours."

"Cheers Nige." He hangs up and switches to his banking app.

Sam frowns, "If the plastic glasses are twenty five, the bottles twenty five each, with a ton tip that's seven fifty! You trust him with that much?"

"He's been my delivery wing man for years. He's never once let me down or short changed me. Why should he start now?"

"A large amount of money?"

"We'll see." He taps in the details and does the transfer. "Tuck in."

Forty minutes later the waitress has cleared their plates and is passing menus around. "We have fresh mini apple pies and custard today, not on the menu, chef's been trying out some new dishes each day."

"Please!" John grins boyishly.

"One for the gentleman. Ladies?"

"It's a celebration, why not. Mum?"

"Go on then."

While they wait John gets up slightly and looks at Sam's bags. "Any clues as to what I'll be wearing?"

"Nope. You'll see. It's rather special."

Cindy smiles, "You'll love Sally's outfit, assuming they managed to get the rest of the Trinkets stitched on and more sequences programmed into the Pi."

"What the actual.."

"Sam?"

"Trinkets?"

"You know about them?"

"The shop I go to sells stuff made with them, light belts, ropes, badges and stuff, and a load of American imports."

"Well Jane stitched a load onto Sally's morph suit so we can control it via a Pi and Block."

"Jane? Holy fucking shit." She gets out her phone and taps furiously. "This Jane?"

"That's her. She'll be here tonight to video Sally." Cindy shows a short test video.

Sam does a squee noise. "Holy shit!" She dials. "Come on come on pick up! Simon! Is Fran there? Please!" She drums her fingers on the table. "Fran! How quickly can you get to London? Slacker Hacker Jane's done a morph suit! And my Mum's Block code has been linked to it. Jane's going to be at the gig filming. Hackney 11PM. I know! You can? Awesome! See you later, don't forget ID!" She hangs up and excitedly stamps her feet. "Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!"

Cindy gives John a puzzled look, "Do you know about Slacker Hacker Jane?"

"Nothing more than what we've both learnt today."

She turns to her daughter, "Is she that big a deal?"

"Bigger than big in the dance scene. She makes all sorts of things for all the top acts."

"Interesting."

"In what way?"

"I was thinking the LED count could go even higher, the person becomes a walking video wall."

"Can you make one for me?"

"In the summer holidays. You'd get pretty hot in one with all those LED on."

The waitress brings the apple pies. "Any more drinks. No? Okay, would you like the bill? You look like you want to get somewhere."

"Please, but no rush, we've got time."

[Chapter-21](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-21-1)


	21. Chapter 21

Sam handed John a bag, "Hopefully it's all good. See you in a few minutes." She grabs her mothers hand and leads her to the corner where some temporary curtains had been put up.

Cindy looks around, "No toilets?"

"They'll arrive later hopefully. I heard a guy at the front on the phone, they've got one of those loo lorries you see at festivals turning up."

"Loo lorry? Loads of loos you see on building sites?"

"Hell no, you won't see me in one of those. It's like a proper ladies, only built into a lorry container. Proper loos, sinks, mirrors, hot water, you'd think you were in a hotel."

"Nice. Sam, while it's just the two of us, can I ask a favour?"

"Sure Mum, what is it?"

"A little boy dropped some sweets into my bag today on the bus. I was about to eat one and got a really nasty feeling. I think Ruby may have dabbled in things she shouldn't have, if you see anyone trying to offer me anything other than Champagne scare them off."

"Crap. Well I did say I'd be responsible.. stick by me okay?"

"Thanks Sam."

Sam hands her mother a fishnet body stocking. "I got you red."

"Is that it! Holy cr.."

"No!" Sam laughs, "You wear that underneath the rest!"

"Oh. Sorry. What else?"

"Hot pants and a crop top. And red trainers to match. They've got memory foam soles so your feet won't kill in the morning."

"Good thinking. What have you got?"

"Exactly the same but in black."

"Where do we put our things after?"

"The man who checked our ID said someone called Kev got lockers chained to a pillar to the side of the DJ booth, it'll have loads of eyes on it, and cameras."

"Good. Can you help me change my Lace cable?" She bends over and flicks her hair forward, feels for the connector. "The new one's in my bag."

"New? What's wrong with the old one?"

"Nothing, the new one's from the doctor, he wants feedback. It's much thinner."

Sam opens her bag and gets it out, turns it sideways. "Wow that is thin. The cable too. Might it break?"

Cindy shrugs, "Maybe that's why he wants feedback. If it survives me jumping about tonight it should be good for normal use." She gets her nails under the connector and pulls. Several body twitches later she holds a hand out, "The new one please."

"Do you always do that when you disconnect?"

"Do what?"

"Shake."

"Did I?"

"Big time."

"I don't feel it."

Sam hands her the new connector. "It looks nasty."

Cindy works the halter neck top up and over her head, brushes her hair over her right shoulder and snaps the new connector on. She slowly stands. "Can you help me route it around my bra?"

"Sure. How much slack do you need?"

Cindy drops her head and gets her chin to her chest, "That should do."

Sam routes the cord loosely around the strap a few times, "Head down and all the way to the left?" She adjusts it a little, "Okay, under the strap around to the front?"

"Please."

"Where's the block?"

"On the left."

"Where on the left?"

"Between boob and ribcage. I've got a foam block the other side to balance things."

"Each to their own. I prefer chicken fillets."

"I never had a chance to try them at your age. A whole chicken might have worked."

Sam silent chuckles for a few seconds. "Caged hens or.."

"Free range, definitely free range."

Sam tucks the cable under the strap. "Where's all the excess cable going?"

"In a coil under my right boob, they made the block slightly hollow. I need enough of the cable end to connect up."

"You better finish it then."

Sam watches her mother fiddle with coil and blocks. "Doesn't the block get hot?"

"Warm, never hot."

"If it did get hot?"

"You'd see me rip clothes off fast."

"In case the battery is going unstable?"

"Exactly. There. Do they look okay?"

"They look like you're fishing for a fella."

"Already caught one."

"John?"

"Yes. How do I get the fish-net on?"

"Like tights, then up and arms in. It's quite stretchy stuff."

Cindy wriggles out of the dress and picks up the body stocking, looks at the netting. She's hit with a flashback, a long haired man sat on a boat with a fishing net.

"Mum? Mum? You okay?"

"Hmm?"

"You zoned out?"

"Did I? Sorry." She holds it up, "Is there a front or back?"

"No, either way."

Cindy kicks shoes off, gets one leg in, then the other, pulls it up over her hips, then up to her chest. "Arms in now?"

"Sure. Want a hand?"

"Please."

[Chapter-22](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-22-1)


	22. Chapter 22

"Hello!"

They turn to see Sally entering the space with Jane.

Cindy smiles, "Hello! How'd you get on this evening?"

"Jane's helped me set up a sequence per letter of the alphabet, some number macros and a few special characters." She starts stripping down to underwear. "All I need to do is think A B A B etc to fire them off."

Jane smiles at Cindy, "Thanks to your extendable listener code on the Pi it was easy Chloe."

"Good." She takes the hotpants Sam was holding out. "I've got a load more ideas for you the next time we meet." She steps in and wriggles them up. Sam hands her a cropped top. "Are you kidding?"

"No mu..ch as you think it's too short, the boys will love it."

"They'll see the bottom of my bra if I lift my arms!"

"That's the whole point!"

"Oh." Cindy bursts out laughing, "I finally get it."

"Get what?"

"My milkshake brings the boys to the yard."

"Mum!"

Cindy gives her daughter bug eyes. "What did you call me?"

"Um.. You're as bad as my mother."

Sally gets up close. "It is you isn't it. Cindy Bexley. Pushed. You weren't just on campus but in the room, favourite chair and all. Lace up the bootstrap. Oh my God. You actually fucking did it!"

Sam gives her sorry eyes. "Listen.."

"Sam, don't panic. I was going to tell everyone tonight. Sally, Jane, please keep this under wraps until the end of the night. As I said I've got more ideas for you, keep my secret for a few hours and they're yours."

Jane gives her a sideways look, "Can someone explain?"

Sally turns to her friend. "Cindy got blown up. A doctor used all the data from her block to bring her back. In this body."

"What the fuck?"

Sam turns, "Ruby was in a coma, had an organ donor card, the hospital hadn't been able to bring her out of her coma."

"So she donated her _whole body_? Everything in one hit?"

"That's it pretty much."

"Fucking A! Massively gross but fucking cool at the same time. I won't say anything. Sally's the one to watch."

"Thanks a bunch! I won't be doing any talking with the suit head up."

"True."

"Aren't you lady's dressed yet?"

Cindy turns to the curtain, "Sorry John! We've been talking."

Jen frowns, mouths John and smiles.

"How long are you going to be?"

Sam gets changing fast, "Give us five?"

"Okay. I'm going to call Nigel, find out how he's getting on."

"How d'you like the shirt?"

"Love it!"

Sam helps her mother into the the arms of the bodystocking and then the top. "Shoes are in the bag." She gets her fish net body stocking on super fast.

"You look like you've put one of those on before Sam."

"I might have done. Never in front of one of my heroes though."

Sally is half into her morph suit. "Heroes?"

"Yeah, Slacker Hacker Jane. I'm a massive fan."

Janes chuckles, "I didn't realise I had fans outside of the artists I work with. Have you seen a lot of my work?"

"Loads! And I got our stuff from Electric Dance, I got John a LED shirt, Mum and I the El wire snakes."

"Which shirt?"

"Disco ball with headphones, the one with a active equaliser graph at the bottom."

"Nice! I like that one, I wish I'd made it."

Cindy pulls her top down as low as it will go, which wasn't that low. "Snakes?"

"Clear silicon rubber with an electric wire down the middle, it makes it light up."

Jane smiles widely, "They're a bugger to cast properly, the wire doesn't want to stay in the dead centre, even with the super fine line I've tried."

"Line?"

"It's like fishing line, thinner than a human hair, I put lengths across the mould before pouring the silicon."

Sam wriggles into her hot pants and top, gets out one the snakes and bends the tail. It lights up orange. "That's my one." It's put over her shoulders. The same is done to the second, "Here you go, one red snake."

Sally claps, "Jane! We've got your marketing words!"

"What?"

"You know I keep snakes, my lampropeltis triangulum, a king snake, they're commonly known as a milk snake!"

"And?"

"My milk snake brings the boys to the yard?"

Jane's expression changes, "And their light is better than yours! _Perfect_!"

Sally pulls up the top of the morph suit, "Zip and power time!"

Jane obliges, "Ready ladies?"

Sam grins, "Give us a demo."

Cindy nods, "Which is your favourite sequence Sally?"

"S. Snowfall."

The suit lights up, white dots drift down from her head to toe and fingertips. Every so often they're rotated sideways and down as if by a breeze.

"Very nice. What else have you got?"

"F Fireworks." Lights race up from her feet and get brighter, split into many colours that race off in all directions. "That took the longest to figure out."

Other girls start to get into the space. Jane smiles at Cindy, "That one took a full hour. Everyone's ready, lets find your man, stick the bags in a locker."

[Chapter-23](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-23-1)


	23. Chapter 23

Nigel had been off the air, John was getting worried. "He's been so reliable up until now." His LED shirt pulsed to the sound of his voice.

Sam gets close and sings, " _I did say it was a lot of money_! Neat, each line responds to a different frequency like the real thing. Not bad for thirty quid." She holds her snake's head and tail and stretches her arms right out sideways, watches the first DJ get ready to start his set. "Sammy Snake Charmer is ready to get high."

"High?"

"On adrenaline mum, don't panic!" The place was getting packed.

Sally waves, "Yay! Jen's here!"

"Where?"

"Over by the changing area."

The DJ drops the first track and the crowd gets moving.

"Oh my good God! What _is_ she wearing?"

"A bikini, cowboy hat, waistcoat and chaps."

"She's going to dance in that?"

"You'll probably see worse than that tonight. Don't let anyone else have your snakes. Jen's girlfriend is a sex mad monster."

"Which one's her girlfriend?"

"You'll know when you see her. She normally wears a big blue wig and patches of white k-tape, nothing else."

"K-tape?"

"The stuff you see runners and tennis players stick on when they've had injuries. Only she uses it to do minimalist designs."

A man in plastic see through jacket and trousers approaches and waves a little baggie of pills, "Any of you ladies after a buzz?"

Cindy snatches them fast, throws them to the ground and stamps on them. "Get the fuck away from us! Get away from here all together! He's fucked up because of this shit! If I see you again you're a dead man!"

Sam grabs her arm, "Calm down!"

"Get off me." She stares the man down, "What have they been cut with? Accurately known doses or random levels, some no good for anything, others lethal?"

He snarls, "Fuck you bitch!"

John comes running, "What's going on?"

Sam nods, "This guy's pushing drugs."

Cindy snarls, "In a past life so did I."

"Mum?"

"Sea monsters, songstresses of the night, we walk the sea bed. I've been to hell already. I'll take this guy down with me if he doesn't clear the fuck off _right now_! Rubies are red, Maddon's as good as dead."

"Ruby?"

Cindy wobbles, "Sam?"

"You need some air!"

"Get this guy out of here!"

"JOHN!"

John turns to see Nigel. "Thank God! He's made it."

Nigel waves him over.

"Ladies, can you lend a hand?"

Outside they find Nigel opening the passenger door and pulling out a large yellow rubber builder's tub. He lifts it, just, staggers back a few feet and lowers it to the ground. "I thought you'd like it cold."

John pats the man on the back. "You've gone above and beyond! Ice! You star! Want to join us?"

"If that's okay?"

"I'll buy you a ticket, what extra do I owe you?"

"Nothing, the buckets and ice are on me. We'll need a few more people, there's three on the back seats. The glasses are in the boot."

Sam holds her mother by the shoulders, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah."

"Who's Maddon?"

"Who?"

"You said Maddon's as good as dead."

"I did?"

"Shit. It was her. Is she going to be trouble?"

"I hope not."

John had commandeered a corner of the warehouse and set the buckets in a L shape. The rest of the lecture class slowly start appearing. A few had bottles and cans.

Krystle waves her's, "Sir, can I put them in your bucket to cool down?"

"Sure."

Nigel looks at the white band on his wrist. "Want more ice John? I passed a twenty four hour place that looked like it would have some."

"You're off duty now, I'll see if any scooter guys are about."

"One of my rivals?"

"Relax, only ice and because you're here. Grab a glass, crack open another bottle and chill out."

"I'm driving."

"Not tonight you're not. Ubers on me."

"Really?"

"Really."

Sam watches her mother dancing, glass half full of bubbly held high above her head. She'd not seen her mother enjoying herself so much for years. Assuming it _was_ her mother in control, not Ruby at the wheel.

"Jen's girlfriend's just turned up."

"This I've got to see!"

Sam smiled, still Cindy at the wheel, at the moment anyway. "My eleven o'clock."

Cindy slows her dance and turns, gawps, turns back to look at Sam with eyes wide. "Really? I feel naked enough in this! How does Jen put up with that? Talk about attention seeking!"

Sam smiles wider, "Not noticed the fan club you've built?"

"What? I can't hear you?"

The music had got a bit louder."

"NOTICED YOUR FAN CLUB?"

Cindy looks around, sees where eyes are landing, beckons Sam closer, "They're not _mine_ , they're _ours_."

"You think?"

"All three of us."

"Three?"

"You, me, Ruby."

"Ruby?"

"No way can I claim credit for all the dancing I've done."

"Can you talk to her?"

"Not yet."

"Yet! You're trying?"

"She's in here Sam, I'm not saying how I know, but she is."

"Come outside where we can talk!"

They pass Sally doing all sorts of shapes and patterns. "Nice work with the Block to LEDs by the way."

"Sam, nothing is work unless you'd rather be doing something else!"

"Nice quote."

"Not my words, George Halas said them."

"Who's he?"

"Was. An American football player, coach and owner."

"And where'd you here that?"

"In a nice old book of quotes I found in a draw at home."

[Chapter-24](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-24-1)


	24. Chapter 24

Jen holds her girlfriend's hand and leads her into the corner penning John in. "Serena, this is my lecturer Mr John Cooper."

Serena looks him up and down, "Hello Mr Cooper. Jen's always talking about you."

"She is?"

"She says you're the best lecturer in the University."

"I don't know about that. Can I get you a drink? We've got more Champagne left than I'd expected."

"I'd love a glass."

John turns and crouches down to get a glass and bottle, turns around to find her even closer. He's a little surprised and clearly uncomfortable. He stands slowly and carefully in the little room he has, "Um, say when." He starts pouring.

It reaches the very top before Serena says "When."

"Don't you get cold wearing that?"

"I come in clothes, only strip down when there's enough body heat coming off everyone else to keep warm." She steps even closer, enough for John to smell the perfume she'd covered herself in. "There's a _lot_ of warmth coming off you Mr Cooper."

Jen laughs, "Stop teasing the man Serena!"

"I'm not teasing him Jen, I'm testing him. So far he's passed. How are you able to keep eye contact Mr Cooper?"

"Honest answer. I saw everything as I got up with the bottle."

"Much left in there?"

"The bottle? No, maybe half a glass."

"Can I have it?"

"If you want." It's handed over.

Serena turns and moves to Jen's side then turns to face her. "Want some?"

"Yeah!" She gets on her knees and puts her tongue on Serena's belly. Serena starts pouring the Champagne on the top of her sternum.

John turns to Nigel, "I can't watch this. Can I leave you to watch the bottles?"

"Of course."

John finds Sam and Cindy are outside, playing with Roli Noise, Garage Band and other music related apps. He holds back a little and watches.

The first of the DJs to play had come outside to puff on a nice fat cigar. The DJ hears the sounds playing and watches Cindy moving, after a couple of minutes of watching her gyrate and do things with fingers he realises what he was witnessing. "Fuck me! Is that coming straight out of your head?"

"Not quite. I've got Neural Lace. My thoughts are influencing code on the block."

"Show me?"

Cindy taps her fingers on his forehead, each sets off a different sound. "My block takes my thoughts, converts them and talks CoreMIDI to the phones."

"Whoa.. getting that stuff fitted, is it painful?"

"Only the scalp afterwards. Just like any other surgery otherwise."

"Cool. I'm Jack."

Cindy does a slight wobble, "Ruby.. Murry, She killed for Curry. I'm Chloe, fancy getting a nice hot vindaloo somewhere I'm starving?"

"Yeah, sure."

She sees John leaning against a wall, has another little wobble, "The whole gang's coming, I'm not asking you out, just being friendly."

"Oh. I'll pass then, curry's not really my thing."

"You said yes just for the chance of a date, just the two of us?"

"Yeah."

"Aww, aren't you sweet. Sorry, this body's taken." She walks over to John, "Hello handsome, fancy a dance before she shares her secret with the world?"

"She?"

She reaches up and grabs him by the back of the neck, pulls him into a long kiss.

He asks again, "She?"

"She who's been hiding. Who else? Come on. Sam, can you look after all the phones dear?"

"Sure."

The music had slowed down a little and become less bass driven. It was early morning and Kev and the DJs didn't need the police breaking it up due to noise complaints. Enough speakers had been strung around the factory ceiling to not need them driven to insane levels like a more traditional rave.

Cindy grabs his belt and pulls him close, puts an arm around his waist and grinds. "Enjoying yourself?"

"I am thanks. And you?"

"Lots. Happy Birthday in advance."

He holds her by the back of the neck and pulls her in for a kiss.

When they stop for air Will is standing beside them in fly catching mode.

Cindy laughs, "Hi Will, everything okay?"

"Are you two like an item?"

"Not _like_ one Will, we _are_ one."

"Oh. I came to say thanks for the drink and good night, I've got work tomorrow, a lot of us do."

John looks around, "Has anyone left yet?"

"I don't think so."

He looks at Cindy. "Chloe, I think now's the time don't you? Will, can you get everyone to our corner please?"

"For?"

"Chloe's got an announcement."

"Are you getting married?"

Cindy looks genuinely shocked, she'd not thought that far ahead. "Not yet. We're not even engaged yet."

"So your pregnant?"

"Will! No. Help get everyone together would you?"

Minutes later the whole gang are there. Thankfully Serena was stood behind Jen, they didn't have to overt their eyes.

Sally had her morph suit turned off and unzipped, was grinning away.

Cindy looks around them all. "You are a brave bunch. We lost good friends when those bombs went off. A few chose not to return, which I totally understand. You all came back. For that I thank you. It can't have been easy seeing me take my seat again."

Jen bites her lips and smiles with her eyes, waiting for the others to work it out.

Changying opens her mouth to speak, frowns and closes it.

Cindy smiles at her, "Go on, ask."

"Your seat? Cindy's seat?"

"The one and the same."

Will slaps his forehead, "OH MY FUCKING GOD!"

"Yes Will? I'm no God."

"Cindy Bexley!"

"Yes. Push works. Cindy Bexley is back, thanks to the lovely Ruby who you've been looking at these past months."

"So who's Chloe?"

"Just a cover name."

Krystle puts up a hand, "Does this mean you'll be running the lectures again?"

"No." She turns and smiles at John, "I think Cooper's doing a great job. I'll be there to support him, it's his show now."

[Chapter-25](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-25-1)


	25. Chapter 25

Monday morning John was sat on a stool at the front of the hall. "No lecture from me Wednesday, I'm not back in until Monday next week at the earliest."

"Why sir?"

Cooper smiles at Jen, thankfully she was wearing her regular jeans and student sweat top, "I'm getting my lace fitted tomorrow. I'm going off grid, recovering at my parents. If the healing is slow I'll take a second week off."

"Where's Cindy?"

"Talking to the university heads. Hearing that Cindy's not only back but was right under their noses didn't go so well."

"Why?"

"They're worried about security. They're thinking about banning her from the university campus."

There's a lot of shouting of objections.

"I know! Calm down!"

Will stands, "She helped put this place on the world map, not just our lectures, the whole place. I say if she's not allowed back we all find a new venue!"

"Thank you Will, a new venue would be nice, at the end a University has to award the diplomas. We can't award them ourselves."

They all turn as Cindy enters.

John smiles, "How did it go?"

Cindy shakes her head. "I'm to retain the name Chloe, if I tell anyone else who I really am I'm out of here."

" _What_!"

"Their Uni, their rules." She looks for Jen, "Serena, can I meet her for a chat? They're serious. If Serena talks it's over for me here."

Jen nods, "I'll ask her to meet us for lunch."

"Thanks."

Sally stands, looks at Will then Cindy. "I agree with Will, we should move everything to a new university."

Cindy shakes her head, "That's easier said than done. I'm a risk most wouldn't want on campus."

Will sits, "This really really sucks. It's like they've handcuffed you."

"Put on house arrest is how I see it. I can teach, only via audio link if in my own name, and that will be voice distorted. But I have an idea. Rather than publish my new works as Cindy I'll share my ideas with you all, get your input, then _we_ publish, every one of us listed as authors. John and _all_ his students."

It gets her a round of whoops, cheers and claps.

She waves it down, "As John will be out for the rest of the week I thought we could have some fun with Sally's suit again, experiment with other Block tricks. Nothing structured, just play with ideas and see where they take us."

John did his Neural Lace history lecture as planned, Cindy sat smiling and gently nodding in student mode. He caught her frowning at some of the older facts, maybe they'd not returned to her with the push?

Sally got Jane to come in lunch time too. The six of them sat in John's office. Cindy and John were surprised to find that Serena wasn't Jen's girlfriend's real name. Wig, contact lenses and contouring makeup removed she looked very different. She was a fellow student, just not in Cooper's lectures. Tina's rave identity was something she wanted protected as much as Cindy now wanted her's protecting.

Jane's phone chimed again. She adds her signature onto the bottom of the letter for Cindy. It had questionable legal status but if it made her feel more at ease it was worth it. "Thanks again for your help with the morph suit for Sally, that was another notification, thirty thousand views and climbing. Not bad given it was only posted at eight!"

"Wow! You're coming along Wednesday aren't you?"

"Am I?"

Sally takes the A4 sheet and signs, "I did say."

Jane's eyes dart back and forth. "I thought you meant in the evening?"

"No, the day here with the gang."

"Oh. I'm supposed to be in to sign for more parts. I might be able to change the delivery address if it's not left the main depot yet." She taps away on her phone. "It's not left. Can I have them sent here?"

John sucks air in noisily, "Can nobody else receive it? Only the security checks here are a major pain in the proverbial."

"Sod it. I'll reschedule it for the day after."

"Thanks."

Tina looks between John, Jane and Cindy. "Any chance I can come along? Adding fancy lights to my outfits would be rather nice."

Cindy does a silent chuckle, "Sorry, I shouldn't laugh, but _where exactly_? There's not a lot to your costume, if you can call what looks like giant coloured Elastoplast stuck to your sides, boobs and lady bits a costume."

"All of those bits. To make me look more fantasy cyborg."

Cindy looks up at the corner of the room, "Right, _now_ I understand what you were aiming for. My ex husband was rather partial to that style of art. I think we can help you there. Jane, if you can cast a snake you could do a partial body cast couldn't you?"

"I guess so?"

"From which we could make an accurate mannequin on which to build some high density LED panels."

John closes his eyes and pictures her alter-ego Serena. "Wouldn't that restrict movement? How would anyone dance in something like that?"

"It would have to be on a flexible substrate that can bend and stretch. Show the engineering majors a video of Serena dancing and they'd.."

Jen cuts in, "Jump at the chance to be involved, given that most men think with their Ood hindbrains?" She emphasised the S heavily.

John frowned for a second then rolls his eyes and smiled, "I asked for that didn't I."

"You did sir."

Tina comes to his defence, "He was well behaved at the rave. Unlike some I could point out."

Cindy turns to Jane, holds up her phone, "Have you seen these sorts of images? They photoshop in lines that make the body look like it's made of panels. If the light levels of the LED are carefully managed we can fake depth."

"Cool. Body casting Wednesday AM? If so I'll get an order for silicon in right now."

Tina shifts uncomfortably in her chair, "Where? Only the five of you know it's me. Tuesday night at mine would be better if you can?"

[Chapter-26](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-26-1)


	26. Chapter 26

Thursday morning Cindy rolls over and strokes Molly. "What shall we do today Molls? No need to go anywhere. Yesterday was a _blast_ , sorry I got home so late, we just couldn't stop ourselves."

Molly purrs and rolls onto her back, feet up.

"Slob out day? Sure?"

Meow.

"Okay, slob out it is."

She picks up her phone, still no reply. When she'd spoken to him in his office Monday afternoon he said he was going off grid, had clearly meant it. "I wonder what his parents are like? He wants me to meet them at the end of the month."

Molly does a deep resonating purr.

"I know! That means he's serious right? Oh my! If we got married I'd be Cindy Cooper. CC. Your email, have you CC'ed CC?"

She'd fallen asleep with the Block connected. Despite the thin appearance of the cable it was tough. It survived the party, the games they'd played Wednesday. She carefully disconnects it and puts it on its charge base. "Too late for breakfast, brunch?"

Meow.

She throws on a sweat top and heads downstairs. Molly races past and does a drift turn towards the kitchen.

"Slow down girl!"

A fresh tin of tuna opened she sits on the floor with her old cat. "I wish I'd taken Nigel's number, I really fancy sushi now."

Purr.

"How hard can it be? There's got to be someone who's put videos up right?"

Meow.

Cindy frowns at her cat. "If we gave you lace I wonder if we could have a proper conversation? Would it be deep and meaningful or just feed me, change my litter tray, you're warm."

Warm. She smiled at memories of the rave party, their tongues touching. God he'd tasted good. Jen had spoken to Kev, he'd got the DJ to drop a mix of Jaded's In The Morning as a last track for the uni group. She'd done a Shazam and added it to her playlist. Back home she'd gone wild and made him reach for things as her phone played the track on loop on her dressing table.

That's what she'd do today. Master sushi making. She'd probably throw away the first few attempts, photograph it when she'd got it purrrfect.

"Okay Molls. Mummy's going shopping for sushi supplies."

She threw on jeans and put her hair in a very rough plat, slipped on trainers and grabbed her purse. At the door she spins around, races up the stairs to get her phone and earbuds. A music fix was in order. She also grabbed the Block. It could get a full charge later.

On the bus towards the supermarket she feels a tap on her shoulder. She turns to see an empty seat. An earbud is pulled out, moments later there's giggles below. "Geoff?"

"Hello lady."

Cindy looks along the seats, doesn't see his mother. "Where's your Mummy Geoff?"

"Playing hide and seek too."

"I see. Are you both hiding from me?"

Geoff's mother laughs and sits up, "Sorry, I can't play games like him. We spotted you waiting at the stop. Hello again."

Cindy sits sideways, "I'm having a day off today, going shopping for bits to make sushi."

"Nice, I like a bit of sushi."

"Do you know how to make it?"

"No."

"Me neither, I'll be learning."

Geoff pops up and shouts "Boo!"

Cindy fakes surprise, "Eek! Hello young monster."

He frowns, "What's soochi?"

"Sushi. Fish and vegetables wrapped in rice."

"Vegetables, yuck!"

"Have you tried it? It's not yuck."

Geoff's mother gets up and walks closer to sit with her son, "I'm Helen. You have eaten it Geoff, the little things you pour the dark source on for Mummy."

Cindy watched the cogs turning as Geoff worked things out.

"It has vegetables? You tricked me!"

Helen laughs, "But you _love_ it Geoff."

He folds his arms and looks very cross. "Not now!"

"Oh dear. I'm.. Chloe. Geoff are there any superheroes you like?"

He nods.

Helen looks at him, "Wolverine?"

"Yes."

Cindy grins, "Awesome! I'm the lady version of Professor-X."

"No you're not!"

"I am. And I can prove it."

"How?"

Cindy gets her phone out and opens a notepad, turns the display to face mother and son. "Give me a message. I'll tell the phone to show it to you."

"Geoff does not like vegetables!"

Cindy closes her eyes. "Okay. I'll tell the phone now."

The words GEOFF DOES NOT LIKE VEGETABLES! Appear one letter at a time.

"How.."

Cindy looks at Helen. "It came out okay?"

"Yes. How.."

"Geoff you need to eat your vegetables if you want to grow up to be a strong superhero. Got to go or I'll miss my stop!"

This time it was Geoff's turn to sit in the bus and wave. Helen did a gesture and mouthed _How_?

Cindy waved back and tapped the side of her head mouthed _Brain power_ and winked. She popped her earbud back in, span around and headed back down the road towards the supermarket entrance. Mission Sushi. A quick search while she walked got her a shopping list; salmon, avocado, sushi rice, roasted sesame seeds, soy sauce, sushi nori, wasabi paste, sweet rice wine, sliced ginger and a sushi rolling mat. 

Just as a basket was grabbed the track changed. It wasn't recognised. The phone is checked. "3LAU, Is It Love? Der Yes! It's love!" It wasn't just herself she wanted to make sushi for. Her SPJ loved the stuff! What else did he like? What would his mother or father be cooking for him? What would they make of her?

While hunting down the isle with the Japanese products she passed an end of isle display with special purchase products on offer. They were usually given a wide berth, her interpretation of _Special Purchase_ being _Crap Someone Else Can't Shift_. Today something caught her eye. A large waterproof Bluetooth speaker. With rubber suction pads to stick it to a glass window or tiles. Ideal for the shower. One's dropped into the basket and the hunt resumes.

A member of staff is spotted. "Hi, can you tell me where to find the Japanese food products please?"

"Isle fourteen, top two shelves above the Chinese things."

"Thanks." A quick scan of the boards hung from the ceiling told her she was only at isle six.

Finding the bits she needed once she had the correct isle was easy. Everything she needed was there in the one place, all except for the salmon and avocado. Basket loaded with more than enough of each she headed back the way she came. The vocals of the track repeated the question, is it love.. Yes! Would John like one of the speakers? Seventy five down to twenty was a good deal, if they worked well. She returns to the isle end and grabs one in black. As she's about to drop it into the basket she notices a logo next to the Bluetooth one. She'd not seen it before. Radio Link? Reading the back she learns that one could be paired with Bluetooth and become a radio transmitter for others. Multiple others. Memories of dancing with John under the array of speakers give her a lovely warm feeling. She runs to the entrance and grabs a small trolley, returns and takes the lot. Black, blue and pink. The track changes and the phone needs checking again. The Wall. Original mix by Arty. She remembers slow dancing to it with John, not adding it to her playlist.

Salmon and avocado, she knew where to find those.

At the tills she looks at the stack of boxes. Maybe she'd got three or four too many? "Can I have some 10p bags please?"

The checkout girl smiles and gets a couple. Three speakers fit per bag.

"Can I have a couple more please?"

"Sure."

Cindy bags the eleven boxes, sticks the food bits into the last bag and gaps in the others. Getting them to the bus would be fun. Four would go in the shower itself, one by the loo, two in the bedroom, four for John.

[Chapter-27](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-27-1)


	27. Chapter 27

Back home she drops the boxes and swears. The handles of the bags had made her fingers go white. "Molly, Mummy's home."

Molly races down the stairs, does a slide in her direction and purrs loud.

"I've got the bits. And speakers. Let's have a little rave of our own, they're all pre-charged according to the blurb on the back."

Getting them unboxed was easier said than done. Inside the cardboard box they were sandwiched between two heat sealed layers of moulded plastic. "What a waste of material. One or the other on its own would have done."

Meow.

Cindy smiles at Molly and gets scissors. It takes her a good ten minutes to get them all out of the packaging.

"Right! Only stabbed myself once, only a minor flesh wound, I'll live." The first of the pink speakers is powered up.

Bleep bloop.

Her phone is checked for devices, the new entry connected. Earbuds removed Spotify is started. "Whoa! Bass!! Nice!" The instructions are read again. There was a button to push to start secure radio pairing. Any speaker not connected to a Bluetooth source would run in slave mode. "Child's play! Even you could do this Molls. Maybe." The buttons are pushed on first and second and the music is replicated. "Now that's neat." She does the same to the rest and scatters them around the living room and kitchen.

"Okay! We have the sounds. Now to cook sushi rice."

Instructions followed she lets the rice cook, does a dance around the kitchen getting everything else ready. Her Block beeps to warn power was low. Damn it. She fished it out of her bra and heads up to the bedroom to charge it. Being able to plug an external battery in to charge the internal one would make life easier. Block placed on charge stand she races downstairs to add the idea to her growing to-do list. She was hit with another idea. Jane's snakes, or half snakes, made into a Medusa type wig, a long line of Neopixels down the middle set to run as a series of dots chasing each other. That would finish Serena's costume off nicely and hopefully have more looking up at her face.

Rice checked she took it off the boil and left it to cool, got the sushi mat out and wrapped it in cling film as recommended. Spotify paused she heads into the living room and flops onto the sofa, "Anything new on Netflix worth a watch?"

Molly leapt onto the sofa and got onto her lap, started purring heavily.

"Chick flick or action movie?"

The purring got incredibly deep.

"Okay, action it is."

An hour and a half later she turns off the TV. "I love Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence, but take away the glossy effects and that was rubbish! Fancy salmon scraps Molls?"

[Chapter-28](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-28-1)


	28. Chapter 28

Friday morning was dragging a little.

She'd awarded herself a Sushi Master award Thursday night, got the hang of things on the forth attempt. A very sharp knife to slice the stuff had been key, not mentioned in the first six videos she'd watched. The knife sharpener had fallen out of the back of the draw, only found after she'd removed them all from the unit.

Wednesday the gang had been brilliant, today it felt like they'd turned into a side road full of speed bumps. Nobody looked enthusiastic, no new ideas were flowing.

She gets to her feet. "Is everyone in a funk because there's no rave tonight?"

It gets a few shrugs and mumbles.

"When I got like this my father used to put on Monty Pythons. _And now for something, completely different_. Forget Lace and Blocks for a bit. Anyone want to try my home made sushi?"

Sally raises a hand, "I will."

Will chuckles, "No, _I_ Will."

Sally gives him a look, "I'm allowed some too."

Will chuckles, "I Will. As in I Am Groot."she 

Sally smiles, "You are big. Definitely not Baby Groot." She goes a little red. "Allegedly."

Cindy goes to her things and gets out the sushi she'd made, the freezer blocks she'd put at the bottom were keeping it nice and cool. "I've got two different types. Ginger and wasabi paste too for those that are adventurous enough."

They all ended up sat on the floor in a large group sharing stories from the previous Friday night.

Krystle grabbed another California roll and wrapped it in ginger, chewed slowly and eventually swallowed. "Awesome C!"

Cindy frowned, "Sea?"

"As in letter, not ocean."

"Right. C. Chloe or Cindy."

"Yeah. Can be both. Kev is setting up as a pro gig organiser, finding all the right people to work with. He's well impressed with the loo lorry, did anyone here get to use it?" Nods. "Any negative feedback?" She gets a lot of head shakes. "All good?" A sea of nods again. "Great! Jane's morph suit went down well with the rest of the ravers Sally, he wonders if you and Serena can team up and be stage dancers?"

Sally chokes on her sushi and needs a clap on the back. "Thanks Will. Um, as long as it's in my morph suit and not as a mostly naked cyborg." She sees a few looks from her fellow students, "Will's given up his previous habit. He likes my face now not looking at ink on backs. Soz Jess."

Cindy watches Jess go to say something and think twice. It looked like bull had been taken off the menu. "So who likes the wasabi?"

A few hands go up.

"And who liked it from the start?"

Many hands lower.

"That surprises me. Okay. Someone help eat the last few." The tray is passed around. "Another show of hands please. Who agrees we blow this joint and take over the student bar? I'm buying."

The Alliance group set a new record for getting their shit together. The show of hands wasn't necessary, everyone was voting with their feet.

Jess helps her up, "C, why weren't you like this in your old body?"

"I guess I felt I didn't fit in. I was in a bit of a rut socially, still recovering from my controlling husband leaving. Ruby's been a blessing."

"When I'm older and have a daughter, if that happens, I want to be able to go out with her like you and Sam."

Cindy watches Will and Sally leave the room with a few others. "I hope you find Mr Right."

"Thanks. That's not Will for sure. He doesn't want kids. Ever. I hope Sally understands that, she'll be heartbroken if she thinks she can change his mind years from now. He was just a bit of Mr Right Now."

"He wouldn't, ever?"

Jess watches the others leave the room. "I promised I wouldn't say why."

Cindy smiles, "Then don't. What's your poison?"

"Snakebite."

"Do people still drink those?"

"Yeah? Why wouldn't they?"

"I thought it was a thing from my era. I've not had one in years!"

"Come and remind yourself what they taste like then."

In the student bar they find Will at the front with his credit card out ordering a first round. He turns to see the two.

"What are you having C?"

The new nickname was catching on fast, good. "A snakebite please."

"Not Champagne?"

"No, I'll save the sipping bubbles for special moments when I'm with J thank you."

"Jess?"

"Snakebite too thanks."

Krystle gets the staff to turn off the large screen playing football and they all start to settle down for another chat.

Thomas, _the_ quietest man of the bunch, the man you'd easily forget was in the room, jumps up when he realises all of the seats are taken. "Jess, have mine, I'll carry some over from the other side."

"Thanks!" Jess watches him go, whispers to Cindy, "It's the really quiet ones you have to keep a careful eye on isn't it?"

Cindy leans in and whispers back, "Maybe, maybe not. I think he's just realised the alpha male has retired."

"You think?"

"Will looks like he's stepped off an American football pitch with the padding still on. We could call him Double You. Y, o, u. I'd put money on Thomas not wanting to compete in any way imaginable. You know the phrase _Good things come to those who wait_?"

"Sure."

"Maybe _you_ are his good thing."

"He's a bit average looking."

"Trust someone who's been around the block a few times, average is good. My ex, on the outside, fucking gorgeous. Inside, a total shit. Of course every man can be a shit, or not, just don't link looks to being a shit or not."

Thomas returns with the first of the chairs.

Jess smiles, "Put mine next to yours Thomas."

Cindy accepted the second chair and sat with Jess and Thomas for a while making what might have sounded to others like small talk. It wasn't. She was helping Jess find out what she had in common with him. Quite a lot as it happened, one of the reasons he'd grown to like her so much.

She places a hand on Jess's knee and shakes an empty glass. "Same again?"

"Please."

"What are you drinking Thomas?"

"Becks Vier please."

She stood and walked around the group asking who wanted what. Each was thought about name:drink. If she was doing it right she'd get to the bar with a notepad doc listing all of the drinks.

Round in she suddenly remembers a promise she'd made for Friday. "Gang! I just remembered a promise I made that I can't break. I need to dash, I'll be back in an hour and a half, promise. I'll leave my card behind the bar, don't go too crazy."

[Chapter-29](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-29-1)


	29. Chapter 29

Saturday greeted her with a thumping headache. A student bar with pints at a fraction of the cost of any London pub meant the alcohol flowed a bit too freely. She'd forgotten to drink water when she got home too. "Time?"

Her Block replied silently in her head. Two twenty PM.

Rolling out of bed she wobbles a little, head spinning. She'd been bitten by too many snakebites. The medicine cupboard in the bathroom had a box of Dioralyte. Two sachet were left. Thinking the stuff onto the to-do list felt like an ask too far. She ripped the box apart, kept the front and two sachets, put the rest in the small tampon bin, stares at the bin for a moment.

Downstairs she slips the box front into her purse and frowns at the coffee table. Defending Britain was sat on it face up, a travel card used as a bookmark. How had she got home and had she seriously sat down and read?

She shuffles into the kitchen and gets a large pint mug from the cupboard, rips both sachets open at once and empties them into it. The cold tap is run for a while before she fills the mug. The sound of water felt good. Spoon taken from a draw she stirs it for a while, shuffles into the living room and flops down onto the sofa.

She slides her phone off the coffee table and unlocks it, starts Spotify. Damn this headache, the font was too small. Phone dropped back on the table she grabs the TV remote. Her Smart TV had Spotify, large fonts too.

Molly jumps up and sits beside her.

"Hello Molly, Mummy's feeling fragile today. I was just going to look to see if anyone put sound effect albums up." With the remote she cursors back and forth on the virtual keyboard to type SOUNDS OF WATER. To her surprise an album called exactly that is found. "Cool!"

She scrolls down the track list to Beach Sounds and hits play, puts it in track loop mode. She drinks the pint of water in one go and lies down on her side, pulls Molly in for a cuddle.

She wakes to the sound of the doorbell.

"Time?"

Her block said it was nine minutes to five.

"Sleeping the day away, not good." She jumps up to answer it, sees a card being pushed through the letter box. The door is opened quickly. "Hi! I'm in, sorry, had nodded off."

"Hi, I have a package for you. If you could sign here please."

She takes the pen and looks at his book, "Sorry, where?"

"There."

"Okay." Thankfully the headache was mostly gone. She signs and is given a small box. "Thanks."

"Good night was it?"

"Brilliant!"

"Have a good one."

"Thanks."

Door closed she turns the small narrow rectangular package around. It was neatly wrapped in brown paper. A small sticker on the back had a return address. Mrs F Cooper. His mother? The address wasn't a London one. Very carefully she works at the tape with a nail and gets the paper off. Inside was a small slip of paper. "Harry and I look forward to meeting you dear. This belonged to John's great great grandmother, he thinks it would look good on you and would like to see you wearing it next time you meet. Love Francis. P.S, John apologises for playing games, he had ordered you the book. Molly! I've been sent a gift!" She checks the postmark, it had been sent Wednesday morning.

She sat down and carefully opens the box and gasps. Inside sat a chain with a massive ruby heart pendant. It was heavy. "If this was his great great grandmothers this isn't a glass fake, I'd put money on that!"

Carefully she takes it out and puts it on, gets up and steps to the mirror. "Wow! Now that I like! It's beautiful!"

Molly circles her feet brushing her tail up against Cindy's legs. She bends down and picks Molly up, goes to the coffee table and grabs her phone. She'd seen Sam use a mirror to help take a good selfie, the reflection in the glass letting her use the front camera. She snaps an Instagram photo and lowers Molly back to the floor. She types, _The ladies love our man, look what he sent me!_ , and posts. Seconds later it's liked by Sam and a comment is added. Three smilie faces with hearts for eyes and a forth blowing a heart kiss.

The rest of the early evening was spent catching up with her email inbox, listening to music and having a good dance.

Sam had made friends with some of the students at the rave, shared photos tagging everyone she could. Somewhere around eight o'clock her list of followers on Instagram grew. Jess first, then Will, Krystle. Then it exploded with the rest of the group joining in. She laughed at a photo of herself with Serena.XXX. "I don't remember putting my hands on her boobs? Naughty!" Sam was behind Serena, hands full of butt cheeks. She taps and views Serena photos. Not one looked like Tina. Just as well given what she was up to in some of them. Comments on her earlier snap with Molly grew rapidly too. Maybe because Sam had added another comment full of hashtags?

Sunday morning she woke feeling much better. A shower dance to Arty's The Wall got her properly awake. She loved the music, hadn't listened to the lyrics that closely until now. The phone, thankfully waterproof, was balanced on top of one of the four speakers. She gently taps the icon to put it in track repeat and listens. After a while she starts singing it herself. " _I can't take it any longer, I can't keep myself together, I don't need you to be stronger, I can't hold on forever, I can't hold on forever.._ " One more day to get through and she'd see John again.

With a towel wrapped around her wet hair she looks through her wardrobe and finds a nice blouse. It would sit open at the top and show off her necklace. She wasn't wearing her heart on her sleeve, the gem was nestled nicely at the top of her cleavage. Memories of red laser lights at the rave came rushing in. They used artificial ruby didn't they? She dried her hair more and scrunched it into a good bead head shape.

While having a bowl of Shreddies and way too strong a cup of tea she reads about the first lasers, population inversion, Ted Maiman and range finding. "Get this Molly. The ongoing Lunar Laser Ranging Experiment measures the distance between Earth and the moon using laser ranging. Lasers on Earth are aimed at retroreflectors planted on the moon during the Apollo program's 11, 14 and 15 missions and the two Lunokhod missions. The time for the reflected light to return is measured. How do you bounce a laser of a retroreflector if nobody put it there? You can't. Yet another fact to shut the conspiracy theory idiots up."

Molly head butted her empty bowl pushing it along the floor.

"Sorry Molly!" The bowl, a tin of tuna and a fork are grabbed. "Want to have breakfast up here with me?"

Meow.

Cindy gets food ready on the breakfast bar side of the island and picks her up. The phone is set to rear facing camera, a three second shutter delay and propped up against the salt and pepper pots.

Molly is placed on the other side of the bowl so she faces the camera. Cindy adjusts her blouse and leans forward to set the camera off. Just as the shutter is about to fire with both her and Molly perfectly posed the phone slides onto its back. Thud. Click.

"Brilliant."

The phone is propped back up and a second attempt made. Again it slides before the shutter fires.

"How hard can this be! Grrrr!" She goes to a draw, gets out a placemat and puts it down cork side up, arranges phone and pots.

She watches herself in the screen, shifts sideways a little to get closer to Molly in the image, "Look at Mummy's phone Molls." She reaches forwards and taps. Three, two, one, Click. "Purrrrfect! Third time lucky.

It's added to her Instagram collection, "A happy C & M having breakfast." She adds a brunette lady's head, red heart and scrolls for a cat. "Blast. Why is it you can have different people emoji and only one cat colour? Brunette, blonde, different skin tones, only a single light orange cat!"

Meow.

"I don't know either. We should do something about that."

Purr.

Her phone starts getting notifications of likes and comments.

"Haha. Sam says I should set you up your own Instagram account so I can tag you."

Cereal finished she drops the bowl into the sink and takes a few more pictures of Molly. She clicks her fingers, "Up here Molls." Snap. "Lovely! One profile picture. Are you going to finish that?"

Molly returns to eating.

"Good."

Cindy rests on her elbows and palms, watches her friend eat. Molly had taken to her instantly in Ruby's body. It had been a little surprising as Molly usually hated strangers. She'd been fine with John too.

When Molly finished Cindy helped her down and asked for the time. The shops would open in just over half an hour. "I'm going to get this one printed, send it to Francis with a thank you letter. I think I'll get a selfie stick to make photographing you easier too, maybe one of those selfie buttons.

[Chapter-30](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-30-1)


	30. Chapter 30

The manager at Snappy Snaps helped her upload the photo to the self service terminal and gave her a receipt. "It'll be ready in an hour."

"Thanks. Time to kill. Is there a good jewellers around here?"

"That depends on what you're after."

"Having my ruby valued."

"I'd jump on the tube and head over to Bond Street, pop into Boodles."

"Thanks."

In Boodles a lady greets her with an ultra-bright smile. The red lipstick was making her teeth look so white. Lipstick. She'd forgotten to put any on. Next stop Boots or one of the many makeup shops that were springing up around London.

"Good morning, how can we be of assistance?"

"Hi, I'd like my ruby valued please."

The lady looked stunned, "It's real?"

"I do hope so. A gift from my boyfriend. It was his great great grandmother's." Cindy carefully undoes the tiny chain clasp and hands it over.

The lady smiles and waves her hand up and down, "It has a good weight, unlike the cheep fakes." She turns, "Riven dear, could you bring the scales over please?"

A young man in a very smart tailored suit with his hair pulled up tight into a high bun steps over. "Gorgeous cut and colour. The mount is exquisite. I've not seen one like that in many a year."

"It's four generations old at least according to the young lady."

More customers enter the shop and he steps away to serve them. Cindy watches him closely, sees the wire from his lace disappearing into his shirt. Exquisite. Was that a word a man in his early twenties would use? She didn't think so. She was tempted to ask who fitted it. Maybe she wasn't the first after all?

The lady picks it up off the scales and examines it close up with an eye piece. "Flawless. Absolutely flawless. And this was a gift?"

"I got it in the post. Signed for delivery."

The lady looks insulted, "The _post_? They risked this in _the post_? How utterly foolish!" The stone is carefully and slowly measured with some digital callipers. She opens up a book and flicks through pages, scans down a page with a finger, then scans right and taps the number a few times as if unsure if it was real, worried it might fly away. She writes a number on a slip of paper and puts the finger to her lips, raises an eyebrow and motions to say there were other customers in the store. The paper is turned around while she keeps eye contact. Then she looks down.

Cindy follows her gaze, reads and does a quiet gasp. There were way more zeros after the two than she'd expected. _Way more_.

The woman leans forwards to whisper. "A blood red ruby _that good_ needs insuring, do you have it insured dear?"

"Not yet. I will."

"We do good policies if you need help?"

"Thanks, I'll see if I can add it to mine first."

Diamonds are a girls best friend? Not this lady. She thanked the woman and left, a new spring in her step. Back on the pavement she takes a good lungful of the mild air and grins, "Right! Lipstick and selfie equipment!"

Makeup shops were the first to be seen, two within doors of each other. She found a good ruby red and waved her phone over the pad to pay. Standing at the shop front she ripped open the box, looked in the mirror and smiled. "Ruby, you are my diamond girl. You may have been a little rough but together we make a good team don't you think? Your confidence, my skills, we will indeed go far."

She steps outside and looks around. "What am I thinking! I can get the Block to pair with the phone and _think_ shutter! Something to code this afternoon. The Lace students will love that. I'm surprised none of them thought of it. Time?"

Time to get back to Snappy Snaps and collect the print and find a basic selfie stick.

The rest of a very happy Sunday was spent letter writing, coding, playing dress up, dancing and taking hundreds of photos of herself, Molly and the two of them together. And of course creating the MollyTheCat account.

[Chapter-31](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-31-1)


	31. Chapter 31

Monday morning she showered, put on a nice red dress, her new lipstick, got her bag ready, carefully packed the Sushi she'd made last thing Sunday night into a large carrier bag.

She checks herself in the mirror. The dress had a slight plunge neckline, nothing too racy, just enough to show off the Ruby. "There's food down for you Molly! See you this evening!"

At the bus stop she puts her bags down and sits on the narrow seat and waits. The Spotify track changes and she starts toe tapping. "What an awesome track!" She jumps up and leaps at the bus stop, grabs it with both hands and does a pole dancer's spin around it. Where the hell did that come from? Ruby! It had to be Ruby! She returns to the seat and sits down.

"You should try Britain's Got Talent dear, I think Simon would like you."

She turns to face the old lady and gets a knowing wink. "I've never done that before. Not that I remember."

"Are you sure? You looked like a natural. My late husband was one of them. Everything he did he got right first attempt, it was enough to make you sick some times. Do you always get things right first time?"

Cindy laughed, "Most definitely _not_."

"Just poles? You should get one at home and practice, they say they're great for the core."

"Who's they?"

"My grandkids. I've got eight."

"Wow. I've got a daughter, hopefully I'll have grandkids one day."

"Is she with your mother?"

"No, she's at.." She remembers the body she was in, ".. the nursery. That's my bus, lovely talking to you."

"And to you dear."

The bus ride was sadly Geoff free. She looked out for him and Helen, didn't see them or hear any giggles. She spent the time searching the Internet for pole dancing kits. Many needed bolting to floor and ceiling, became permanent. Then she found a site selling some for five hundred pounds. They had a very large base you'd fill with sand or water, a pole that was fixed only at the bottom. They took PayPal too. "Awesome! I'm ordering this for you Ruby, you should get a chance to drive and not be passenger." She didn't sense any reply, still continued with the order, adding a note that delivery must be on a Tuesday or Thursday.

She finds John's office locked, light shining through the stippled glass and out from the gap at the bottom of the door. There was no answer to her knocking. "He's keen!" She power walks to the lecture hall with a spring in her step and butterflies giving her a lift. The pace slows when she reaches the lecture hall entrance. A group of students were outside the closed door reading a note taped to the other side of the glass.

Sally sees her, "Hello C."

They all part to let her see it.

She stares at the note, her face expressionless. "Anyone fancy sushi? I made it myself last night." She holds the bag out until someone takes it. The rucksack is removed, "Could someone stick this somewhere please?"

Sally takes it, "Um, sure."

Cindy starts to walk away.

"Where are you going?"

"For a long walk."

"What shall we do?"

"No idea. Go home, go to the student bar, visit the library, it's up to you. Come back next week."

She'd perfected the sushi for him, got all dressed up and he wasn't back to see her or taste it. The inconsiderate bastard.

Many hours later and in a makeup smeared, red eyed daze, she checks the pebbles around her feet. A flat one was almost perfectly round, a hole worn through the middle. She picks it up and throws it with a strong flick, watches it skim on the surface a couple of times before vanishing into the next wave. An offering. She takes off her necklace and throws it too, really hard. The chain flails behind the ruby as it sails out into the distance. "There's my heart, crush it!" She takes off her brand new patent leather red heals and throws them too. Bare feet was easier on a pebble beach. Her purse is checked. Multiple bus and train tickets are stuck in another section, the few coins she had are thrown into the sea, her small purse tucked back into her bra with her phone.

"Ruby?"

Cindy turns around, "Chloe. My name's Chloe." She looks for another good stone, it manages three skimming bounces before it too disappears under the surface.

The man steps closer, a can of Carling spilling from the open top. He stumbles and slides on the pebbles, falls to his knees. "Ruby!"

"My name is _Chloe_."

"You don't _remember_?"

He was a mess, long haired, tatty beard, filthy jacket, looked like he hadn't slept in years. Cindy was hit with memories of the man singing, moving pallets and barriers with her on the beach, sharing a beer, things in small bags. This man was.. was.. "Dad?"

He drops to his hands and starts wailing, beer spilling over the pebbles, "It'were all my fault, always telling you it's our land, I'm sorry Ruby, I'm sorry! I saw you from the cliff top, thought I were seeing a ghost. You can't stay here, it's not safe."

Ruby's body wobbled, "Dad, we need to help Luke. I know someone.."

As if to confirm her father's words a loud sound of sliding rock can be heard, they turn to see a large section below the house above starting to fall. She grabs his arm, hauls him up and races into the water.

"Not here, the currents.."

"You want to get flattened?"

They're up to their waists when there's a loud crash on the pebbles, a mass of stones go flying and a chimney stack splashes into the water behind them. She'd got a small fast pebble to the back of the head, takes a dazed step forward not expecting to have come to the edge of a shelf and goes under.

Jim reaches in, grabs at nothing. "RUBY!" He dives under, can't see anything, surfaces moments later. "RUBBBYYYY!"

He swims out a little, dives, surfaces and looks around, "RUBY!"

The strong currents were taking him up the coast. He fights them, dives again. Nothing. "RUBY!"

"JIM!"

He treads water and turns to see Pam up on the cliff top, "It's Ruby! Get away from the edge!"

"Jim you daft fool! Ruby's dead, you're seeing things!"

"She held my arm, pulled me away as the house fell! Call the coastguard!"

"Get out of the water Jim!"

"CALL THEM PAM!"

"JIM YOU MAD FOOL!"

"I MAY BE MAD BUT I KNOW MY OWN BLOODY DAUGHTER!"

"OKAY! I'M CALLING!"

[Chapter-32](http://markse.name/humans/SF-1/Chapter-32-1)


	32. Chapter 32

The colour drains from the doctor's face. "Terrible Tuesday. We'd seen her only months ago. Cindy what have you done?"

The nurse smiles glumly, "The coast guard found her, washed out to sea. She came in on the night shift. As soon as they worked out her blood type and spotted the Neural Lace interface they made the connection and rushed her over, asked us to take over. Ruby's father is waiting in reception."

"Why rush her here?"

"Maybe something Cooper told them?"

"The sea again? Ruby, what on earth happened the first time?"

Ruby couldn't answer. Neither could Cindy.

"Get Cooper on the phone please."

"Okay." the nurse hurries away.

"Cindy, Ruby, we'll do whatever we can." He brushes her matted long hair away from her face, got a cloth and wiped sand from her lips and the breathing tube. "Your research on organ memory was a more understandable read with Coopers annotations, we've used it on seven organ transplants to date, none of the patients reported any change in habits or memories after surgery. It works. I'd been meaning to get in touch and thank you, never found the time. I'm sorry."

The nurse returns, "Arakawa-san, sir, we have a problem."

"What sort of problem?"

"The Vice-Chancellor said Cooper died in a car crash Thursday evening on the way back from his parents. Chloe, Cindy, walked off just before the morning lecture slot yesterday and hasn't been seen since."

The doctor sits heavily on the bed, "Oh my." He stares at the clock, thinking. "We fitted his Lace Tuesday ten forty, that gives three days of waking thoughts. If he was at his parents as he said he may have been doing a lot of reminiscing. It might be enough."

"The university said the only ones to properly understand their latest research were.."

"The two of them?"

"And a few students."

"Cooper showed us Push to get Cindy back. It will hopefully be repeatable."

He walks to the side of the room, types at the PC to open her file. "We still have some blood?"

"Yes sir. She agreed to donate every three months, that's from Friday, about to be split up."

"She was in days ago? Why didn't anyone say!"

"She was in a hurry, said thanks for the block, she'd stop to talk to everyone next time. The new connector is great she says. Everyone's chasing for their vials, Denise is off for a wedding so it's not been processed yet."

The doctor taps away in another window, "This time she's getting it back. Why chasing?" He reads, scrolls, reads and frowns, "There's something we're not seeing. She's got defective blood yet has survived being washed out to sea twice, most people would have suffered great immune system stress and died of hypothermia. She's got or is doing something we're excluding from the equation. What?" He inhales and blows out slowly, cheeks puffed up. "Here's what we do. We do a wipe. Full wipe, inject the drugs into her bloodstream too, not just her head, proceed like an organ donor op. We redo what we did with the first push, tell her of her new research and Cooper, let her decide to live and do a push of everything new. Or give up and die on the table."

"You'd let her die?"

"Mentally yes, if that's what she really wants, if being washed out to sea wasn't an accident. Her body? No way, Rh null is worth its weight in gold."

"You want to make money off her?"

"Not for me! For her daughter Samantha, what sort of monster do you think I am? Which reminds me, we need the cat rescued again."

Sue gives him a long hard stare. "What sort of monster? One that likes Godzilla B movies. If you're going to ask her we should replace her broken block, get her out of the coma, leave all her memories intact. She'll want all the facts. You would if you were in her position. Her father was babbling on about a boy called Luke, he's in a coma, has been for a very long time. Maybe we could use him to bring back Cooper?"

"And you thought I was the monster? I'm glad you're thinking along the same lines. How deep did she go before she surfaced I wonder? For a Block to be pressure crushed like this is unheard of. Yet she doesn't appear to have suffered any broken bones."

The nurse looks at the body and frowns, "Sir, her right hand? She's got it clenched tight in a fist."

"Clenched tight? How is that possible? The rest of her is as limp as overcooked udon noodles. See if you can open it."

The nurse slowly and carefully pulls at her little finger, a small bit of gold chain slides out and dangles. "She's clutching something red sir."

"Keep going."

Moments later they're looking at the ruby stone. The nurse make a huh sound, like a short laugh.

"What was that for?"

"Just a thought sir. A silly one."

"Please share."

"Rh null. She's been through a lot, things many others wouldn't survive. It's like Rh null isn't _just_ her blood type. Ruby hell null, or Ruby hell no. She's been to hell and twice they've turned her away. She's got unfinished work up here with us."

The doctor sighs, "And you think I'm crazy liking Godzilla movies? This lady isn't a mermaid. Okay, we'll try your way first, let's make a start. It'll be interesting to see who wakes up. Will it be Cindy or Ruby?"

"Or a blend of both?"


End file.
